Adding Video Captions/Subtitles to Uploaded (Not Embedded) Videos

Hi there,

I'm experimenting with uploading .mp4 videos directly to Squarespace rather than embedding YouTube/Vimeo videos. It works fine but there doesn't seem to be any way to add a caption file, and the video player doesn't include closed caption options when you click on the little gear icon. When I look at the code, it seems that Squarespace includes a <div class="plyr__captions"></div> for captions, but it's empty.

I thought I'd try uploading a caption file to Squarespace's CDN and then use a code block with <video> and <track> tags to create a player (thusly: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/Audio_and_video_delivery/Adding_captions_and_subtitles_to_HTML5_video) but before I go about reinventing the wheel ... does anyone have experience with adding subtitles/captions to an uploaded (not embedded) video in Squarespace?

Thanks in advance,

Prescott

Hi CPiu94 - I'm wondering if you were ever able to add captions to your videos? Did that HTML code work? I'm building a course in SS, and need my videos to have captions  - were you able to figure this out? If so, would you mind telling me how? Thank you so much. I'm totally stuck.

On 10/20/2022 at 7:35 AM, paul2009 said:

captioning feature has not been added yet. 

Captioning is not currently possible on Squarespace-hosted videos. You may want to look at Vimeo as an alternative if you require captioning.

when will captions and subtitles be available on squarespace? I'm hoping soon as I'm about to launch my online course and it'll be such a help, do you know any time frame when this will be available or do we need to opt for a different platform 

I've faced a similar issue myself. Best solution I can think of is to use the built in Transcribe feature on Microsoft Word, set the Microphone setting on your PC to Stereo MIx and then play the videos into it, it then uploads the audio only to OneDrive and transcribes it within about a minute or so (for a 2 minute video). 

I've tested this on a couple of my online courses and this seems to work quite well as I can then paste the transcript into the HTML page holding the video, it isn't captions but seems to be the next best thing.

Hello - curious if there are any updates of SS offering closed captioning with uploaded videos - or if there is a CSS code solve? I am building out an online course and my client wants to purchase the Pro Plan for Digital Products - but without a closed caption setting - SquareSpace is skipping a critical step for fair accessibility. Would hope this is something they are prioritizing.

Any updates? THANK YOU!

Hello! Following up again re: Closed Captioning. My client purchased the Pro Plan for Digital Products and we are deep in an Online Course creation. Does anyone have a lead on when SS will be rolling out closed captioning for videos uploaded natively to the platform? Again feels like a big miss / BIG opportunity for digital content and online courses and technically without it, SS is not meeting Accessibility Standards for Online Courses. 

Any intel here?

Hello! Following up again re: Closed Captioning. My client purchased the Pro Plan for Digital Products and we are deep in a video-heavy Online Course creation. We bought the Pro Plan because of the ability to host unlimited video natively on the platform.

Does anyone have a lead on when SS will be rolling out closed captioning for videos uploaded natively to the platform? Again feels like a big miss / BIG opportunity for digital content and online courses and technically without it, SS is not meeting Accessibility Standards for Online Courses. 

Any intel here?

1 hour ago, RDIGITAL said:

Does anyone have a lead on when SS will be rolling out closed captioning for videos uploaded natively to the platform?

No announcements have been made. The situation is currently the same as posted above. 

Echoing what others have said here as well. Really hoping this feature can be prioritized ASAP to meet industry standards for accessibility. This is a matter of legal compliance, not just a nice to have.