Adding Captions and Text Overlays to Your Minis
Captions and text overlays add another layer of personality and clarity to your Minis, whether you're labeling a moment, adding a punchline, or simply making sure your content can be understood with the sound off. This guide covers how to add on-screen text, style it to match your Mini, use auto-generated captions as a starting point, and why captions are worth adding to nearly everything you post.
Adding Text and Captions to a Mini
From the Mini editing screen, tap the text tool to open the caption editor. Type your text, then tap the screen anywhere to place it — you can drag it to reposition, pinch to resize, or rotate it to whatever angle fits your shot. You can add multiple text elements to a single Mini, each with its own timing, so a caption can appear right when you want it and disappear before the next one shows up.
Timing your text to match the action on screen makes a big difference in how natural it feels. Tap a text element on the timeline to adjust when it appears and how long it stays visible, lining it up with a specific clip, beat, or moment in your Mini rather than leaving it on screen for the entire video by default.
Styling Your Text
Tap any text element to bring up styling options, including font, color, size, background highlight, and alignment. Try a few different combinations directly on your footage — what reads clearly against a busy background is often different from what works on a plain one, so it's worth previewing your choice against the actual clip before moving on.
- Font: Choose from a range of styles, from clean and minimal to bold and playful, to match the tone of your Mini
- Color: Pick a text color that stands out clearly against your footage, including options with a background highlight for busy scenes
- Placement: Drag text anywhere on the screen and resize it so it doesn't block the part of the frame you want viewers focused on
- Timing: Set when each text element appears and disappears so it lines up naturally with your footage
- Auto-generated captions: Let Whistlr suggest captions based on the audio in your Mini as a quick starting point, which you can review and edit before posting
A caption is a small thing that makes a Mini work for everyone watching it — whether their sound is on, off, or they simply can't hear it at all.
Using Auto-Generated Captions: If your Mini includes spoken audio, Whistlr can suggest captions automatically as a convenient starting point so you don't have to type out every word by hand. After they're generated, review the suggested text on screen, tap to correct anything that doesn't look right, and adjust styling or timing just like you would with manually added text. Auto-generated captions are meant to save you time, not replace a quick proofread — a fast review before posting helps make sure the words on screen match what's actually being said.
Why Captions Matter
Captions make your Minis watchable in sound-off environments, which describes a large share of how people browse Discover, Flow, and Nearby while out in public, at work, or anywhere else autoplay sound isn't practical. They also make your content accessible to viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, and they can reinforce your message for anyone who simply processes information better in writing. Adding a caption takes a few extra seconds and meaningfully widens who can actually enjoy what you've made.