Most ways to subtitle a video on iPhone mean either typing every line by hand in iMovie or uploading your clip to a website. Just Captions transcribes the speech automatically, on your device, and lays down clean subtitles in about a minute.
The short version: open Just Captions, drop in your clip, and it transcribes the speech on your iPhone and times subtitles to every word. Pick one of four readable presets, then export an MP4 with the captions burned in. No line-by-line typing like iMovie, and nothing uploaded to a server.
There are four common routes. Only one is automatic, private, and produces captions that stay visible when the clip autoplays.
| Method | What it's actually like |
|---|---|
| iMovie | Free, but you type and time every subtitle line by hand — slow for anything past a few sentences, and there's no auto-transcribe. |
| Settings → Accessibility → Captions | Only displays an existing closed-caption file during playback. It can't create subtitles for your own video. |
| Upload-based subtitle websites | Often auto-transcribe, but you upload your video to their servers first and work in a browser timeline. |
| Just Captions | Auto-transcribes on your device, burns captions into the MP4, and never uploads the file. About a minute per clip. |
Just Captions is the automatic, on-device option — no manual typing and no upload.
Free to start, no card, nothing uploaded. Drop in a clip and watch the captions write themselves.