captions

Normal

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Zoltán

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Tutorials

Add captions to your videos hosted at api.video using the standard WebVTT format and enable your audience to have seamless user experience regardless of their language or location. Captions also enable you to provide more inclusive and accessible content by inviting deaf or hard-of-hearing users into your audience.

## How to upload captions

api.video offers a suite of dedicated API endpoints that can help you manage captions for your videos programmatically. You can also use the api.video Dashboard to upload captions directly to any of your videos.

### Via the API

The `/captions` API endpoint enables you to manage captions for your videos.  You can upload, update, get, list, and delete captions.

When uploading captions, you only need to include 3 attributes in a `POST` request to the [Captions endpoint](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Captions#upload-a-caption):

- the `videoId` of the video that you want to add a caption to,
- the `language` of the caption you want to upload,
- and the path to the caption’s VTT `file` that you want to upload.

### Via the Dashboard

If you need a quick no-code solution to upload captions to a video, check out your list of uploaded videos [in the Dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/videos). Open the Details page of the video that you want to add a caption to and click on the Captions tab to upload VTT caption files manually.

A screenshot of the api.video dashboard showing the Caption menu.

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## Selecting caption languages

When uploading captions via the API, you need specify the caption file’s language using [IETF language tags](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF_language_tag). You can use primary subtags like `en` (English), extended subtags like `fr-CA` (French, Canada), or region subtags like `zh-Hans-CN` (Simplified Chinese used in the PRC). api.video's caption solution supports all major and minor languages, and even dialects.

Check out the documentation for a [complete list of supported language tags](https://docs.api.video/vod/add-captions#supported-caption-language-tags).

## What is WebVTT?

WebVTT is a standard format for displaying timed text tracks for captions or chapters. It is a text based format, which must be encoded using UTF-8. Here’s an example:

Check out the [Mozilla developer guide](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebVTT_API) for more information about WebVTT.

## Best practices

- When uploading a caption file, make sure that you use the standard VTT file format.
- To ensure that you use the correct formatting in your VTT file, api.video recommends using a parser to check for errors before you upload the file. [Click here](https://w3c.github.io/webvtt.js/parser.html) for a free online VTT parser.
- You can upload captions for one language, and to one video at a time.
- api.video offers video player SDKs for the most popular platforms - and apart from the Flutter player, all of them support captions! Check out the [Player SDKs](https://docs.api.video/sdks/player) to get started!

## Next steps

Now that you understand how captions work at api.video, check out this earlier blog post about [adding captions programmatically to your videos](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/), or dive into the [documentation](https://docs.api.video/) to understand more about api.video’s solutions.

Lost in translation? Fill in the blanks with captions!

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Videos are a compelling way to share experiences with your customers. The combination of speech, sounds, images and movement allow us to share a more enriching experience.

However, on the web a video can only be autoplayed when it is muted. As a consumer with small children, this is often a blessing: the last thing I want is a website to wake up a sleeping baby. But as a developer, I want everyone to experience everything my videos have to offer, so I want to work around this issue (but of course, while still letting everyone’s babies nap!)

One solution is to add captions. Users can still engage with your video and follow along with the dialogue. Facebook finds that [videos with captions are watched 12%](https://instapage.com/blog/closed-captioning-mute-videos) longer than videos without captions (85% of Facebook videos are watched without audio). Longer video watch time increases [your search rank](https://www.3playmedia.com/2018/12/10/7-ways-video-transcripts-captions-improve-seo/), and the presence of a captions file even improves your site SEO! With all of these advantages, the accessibility improvements of your website almost come as an afterthought.

No matter the reason you choose to add captions to your videos — you are probably wondering how it is done!

## The VTT File

Closed captioning is typically done with a VTT (Video Text Track) file. They=se are text files that simply list the text that should appear over a specified period:

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In the example above, from 15–17.9 seconds, the text “At the left we can see” will appear on the screen, followed a split second later by “at the right we can see.” It is really a pretty straightforward format. But other than manually transcribing your video, how can you create a VTT file?

Let’s walk through 2 ways:

### VTT Creator

[VTT Creator](https://www.vtt-creator.com/) is a web based tool. You simply upload your video, and as it plays the video back, it creates captions for you.

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*0EV4F_2lV2epjlaB)

The website uploads your video and begins the analysis, and the pane on the left fills with the subtitles

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*XTOA3ZQoSjDk3InB)

You can download the VTT, and you’re good to go!

### Google Speech to Text

Google Cloud, Azure and AWS all have a speech to text tool. I chose Google’s for this demo, but they all operate in much the same way.

Google has a helpful [QuickStart](https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/quickstart-client-libraries#client-libraries-install-nodejs) guide to set up your Google Cloud account for Speech to Text. The first step is to use ffmpeg to strip the audio track (there is no need to upload the video track when doing audio analysis).

I used their Node.js code example with a few changes (Code available on [GitHub](https://github.com/dougsillars/subtitles)). The video I was transcribing was over 1 minute long, so I had to host it on a Google Cloud instance. Rather than using:

There is no need to transcode the video to base64 (as described in the tutorial) if it is hosted on Google Cloud. The sample code from Google writes the transcript into the console:

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*PHDqyWCU_PCA4nR8)

This is super cool, but we want more than a transcription — we need those time stamps. The raw JSON file has an entry for each word with the start and end time for each word:

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*jxIPZw0Mr2CFOVLA)

So I created a function that groups words, using the first word’s start time,and the end time of the last word. The length of the phrase can be varied — in the sample code it is set to 10 words. The script outputs a VTT file to the console.

### Adding Captions to your Video

### HTML5

Adding the VTT file to your video is easy. If you are using HTML5 video, you can add a track attribute pointing to the VTT file.
```html
<video autoplay muted controls>
    <source src=”myvideo.webm”>
    <source src=”myvideo.mp4">
    <track default lang=”en” kind=”captions” src=”myvideo.vtt”>
    <track lang=”es” kind=”captions” src=”muvideo-es.vtt”>
</video>
```
### Video Streaming

If you want to add captions to your [api.video](https://api.video) video, you can use the Captions API.

1.  First you must [authenticate](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/authentication-tutorial/) your session to gain an access token.
2.  Determine the videoID of the video you’d like to add the caption to. In this example, I have created captions to [Elephant’s Dream](https://orange.blender.org/) (an Open Source video project). The video ID is: vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf

(https://embed.api.video/vod/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf)

3. Make a call to add the [caption](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Captions#upload-a-caption). Using curl, the request looks like:
```bash
curl [https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en-US]
(https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en-US) -H ‘Authorization: Bearer {access\_token}’ -F file=@/path/to/google.vtt
```

And we receive a response:
```bash
{“uri”:”/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en”,”src”:”https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en.vtt","srclang":"en","default":false}
```

Note that captions are off by default. This is easily resolved by patching the video, setting the default to true. Using curl, this looks like:
```bash
 curl -X PATCH [https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en](https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/e) -H ‘Authorization: Bearer {access\_token}’ -d ‘{“default”: true}’
```

And we receive a response:
```json
{
  “uri”:”/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en”,
  ”src”:”https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en.vtt",
  "srclang":"en",
  "default":true
}
```

And watching the movie: success! the captions are turned on by default. To autoplay a video with api.video, simply add #autoplay to the end of the url, and we have an autoplaying video with captions.

Now we can rest assured that our videos will likely have more traction, be watched longer, and shared more often. And, we are making our content more accessible to users who cannot hear.

### Conclusion

Video captions not only make your content accessible, but research shows videos with captions are watched longer, and shared more often. And searchable transcriptions actually increase the SEO of your site!

Often there is reluctance to add captions due to the added work, but with just a few clicks of a button, captions can be generated automatically and uploaded for immediate playback.

[Give it a try](https://dashboard.api.video/register), and share your caption successes on the [api.video community forum](https://community.api.video/).

How to add captions to your videos

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Erikka Innes

If you are creating captions for your videos, sometimes the captions don't appear where you want. Maybe they don't sit on the screen correctly, or maybe you have a creative way you want to present them. As it turns out, captions are adjustable! It will take some fine tuning to get the hang of working with them, but WebVTT is easy to use.

## Prerequisites

For this project you need: 

* api.video account - [Sign up here!](https://dashboard.api.video/register)
* A video you want to caption, uploaded to api.video - [here's a blog about how to upload your video](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/upload-a-video-with-the-api-video-python-client/)
* A VTT file for your video - [Learn how to caption a video with Maestra](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/add-captions-to-your-video-with-maestra-and-api-video/)

## Moving captions

To move captions, open your VTT file. You'll see captions listed next to their times, like this: 

`00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:02.000 
Hello World!`

Now let's say you don't like where the caption starts from. You can add on to the end to move it horizontally. Like this: 

`00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:02.000 position: 20%
Hello World!`

The screen is divided into percentages, so if you put a lower percentage, your caption moves further to the left. If you choose a higher one, it moves further to the right. Be careful you don't move captions into positions where they can't be seen. 

You can also make the captions go vertical. For that, you'd add: 
`00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:02.000 position: 20% vertical:rl
Hello World!`

And in this case, the position is vertical, so the percentage represents a portion of the vertical. 

You can learn a lot more about how to move captions and what's possible by checking out the [WebVTT Guide](https://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1/). Just a few things you can do include changing the color of text, adding italics, specifying if something is loud, and much more!

How to edit and style your video captions

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Captions increase your video's audience. Viewers spend more time watching captioned videos, many people watch videos with the sound off, and you can draw viewers who don't speak the spoken language of your video if you include subtitles. See ["Why You Should Caption Your Videos, Whether They're Classes, Speeches, or Entertainment"](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/why-you-should-caption-your-videos-whether-they-re-classes-speeches-or-entertainm/) if you want all the details and statistics for why you should consider captions for your video content. Another great reason to add captions, is it's easy to do with api.video and Maestra! Let's get started. 

## Prerequisites

* [api.video account](https://dashboard.api.video/register)
* Maestra account (click the blue **Get Started Free** button)
* Sample video with spoken audio (we used one of Doug for this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3C7_kgwrPY, but any video is fine as long as it has clear audio) 

Maestra, auto captions, subtitles, caption a video, subtitle a video

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1. Click **New Subtitle** to bring up the upload panel.
2. On the upload panel under Upload your files, click **My Device**. 
3. For the Select audio language section, we choose **English** because the video is in English. The drop-down offers a 'Most Used Languages' section and an 'All Languages' section. 
4. You can choose different settings. For this walkthrough, we choose **Translate captions to another language** and then for the target language, choose **Spanish**. If you want different settings you can put those instead. 
5. Click **Submit**. 
6. Your video will start transcribing. Once it's complete, click on the title of your video. You can see how well your transcription came out. In this case, it came out pretty well.

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7. The next step is to export a copy of the file with the captions we want. Click the **Export** button in the upper right corner. You'll get a screen listing various choices, including downloading a video with all your captions included. We just want to get a WebVTT file for this walkthrough.
8. Make sure you are on the **Subtitle** tab. 
9. Under Languages, check the **English** and the **Spanish** box. 
10. Click **WebVTT** to download your caption file. The first time you click it, it will say **Ready**. The second time, it downloads a **.zip** file with your information in it. 
11. When you open the **.zip** file, you'll see a caption file in English and one in Spanish. Save these. 

## Add the Video to api.video
We need to add our video to api.video before we can caption it. You have a few choices available to you: 

* [Delegated Uploads for Videos Large and Small](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/delegated-uploads-for-videos-large-and-small-python/) - This tutorial shows you how to use a delegated token to upload a large or small file using Python.
* [Upload a Video From Your Computer](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/upload-a-video-from-your-computer-with-the-api-video-api-python/) - Upload a video under 128 MB from your computer using Python. 
* [Upload a Video with the api.video API Using a Public URL](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/upload-a-video-with-the-api-video-api-using-a-public-url-python/) - Transfer a video from a public URL to api.video

You can also use a no-code method:

1. Open the api.video dashboard.
2. Click **My videos**.
3. Click **Upload**. 
4. Add your video. 

## Use the Captions Endpoint to Add Captions to Your Video
We can now take the files Maestra generated for us and add them to our video. Here's the code sample we're going to use to do it: 

The code sample hard codes the videoId - but if you want you can retrieve it programmatically. A design where a VTT file's title somehow matches the video's title and then you grab the videoId might be a good way to go. 

In our demo, everything is set up to try to handle a situation where you have multiple caption files. We assume a naming convention like this: 
```title_language tag.vtt``` 

So samples of this would be: doug_en-GB for English from Great Britain and doug_es-ES for Spanish from Spain. 

The language tag in each case is a BCP 47 tag. The appropriate tag is at the end of each file so that it can be sliced from the file name and used in the caption upload. Using Python's regex and os modules we search for every file in the current directory that ends with '.vtt'. If it ends with this, we then retrieve the language tag from the end of the title, open the file in binary, then append the tag and file to a POST request to add a caption. We also modify the URL - it needs to include the videoId and the language tag for the language we want to add. You can see how that's built in the sample.

We have two caption files, so we loop through our .vtt files and send each one to be added. For each successful addition of a caption file, we get a response that looks similar to this: 

```
{
	'uri': '/videos/vi6FZib80ZrC8q73AekJqNDH/captions/es', 
	'src': 'https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi6FZib80ZrC8q73AekJqNDH/captions/es.vtt', 
	'srclang': 'es', 
	'default': False
}
```

* uri - the unique link that you add to ``` https://ws.api.video ``` to reach the video caption file (you must authenticate to view this, so you can't paste it into a browser to see it) 
* src - the location URL of the file
* srclang - what language you're using, written shorthand (instead of es-ES it would be es) 
* default - whether this is the default language for the video 

If you want to make a particular language the default caption, you can specify the language by updating a caption. 

## Check Your Work
You can retrieve details about your captions, but an easy way to check is to look in your dashboard: 

1. Go into your Videos section and click your video.


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2. Click the **Captions** icon directly under the X. You'll see that you can add English or Spanish captions. Give it a try on your own video! 

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Maestra does fairly well with captions, as long as the audio is clear. They offer a free trial for up to 30 minutes of video, so try them out yourself. Maestra lets you automatically create a variety of caption files, but api.video uses the WebVTT format, so you'll want that for any projects on our platform. 

If you want to create your own WebVTT file from scratch, Doug wrote a great post about how to do this here: [How to Add Captions to your Videos](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/)

## Show a Caption
You can see if a caption was already added with this code: 

## Show All Captions
If you want to see every caption for a video, you can do this: 

## Delete a Caption 
A caption can be removed with the following code: 

## Update a Video Caption
You can update a video caption to make it the default. The code for that would be: 

This is all the basics for using captions. Thanks for tuning in today! 
[Start builind now](https://dashboard.api.video/register)!

Add Captions to Your Video with Maestra and api.video

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Video trends

Captions are required for any content that's aired on TV before. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) makes this a requirement for any online video that's previously appeared on TV. You'll notice that your favorite streaming sites, like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and others all provide captioning for their content. Look around a bit more, and you'll see that these sites often caption all their content even if it's not required. That's because there are additional benefits to video captioning beyond just meeting legal requirements. 

## Statistics That Will Make You Want to Caption Your Content
If you want to reach viewers, captions rule. In fact, Digiday said "85% of Facebook video is watched without sound." If there's a message you're trying to convey that requires more than images, captions are what will make this possible. 

Statistics about captioning, captions, video

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Verizon Media has a similar statistic - they say "69% view video with sound off in public places and 25%  watch with sound off on private places." And that's not all. According to the same study done by Verizon Media, 80% of consumers are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available and 50% of consumers say captions are important because they watch video with the sound off. 

So while your video or live stream may not end up on TV and require captioning, including captions increases your chance of reaching viewers. What makes no sound so important to viewers? Well as it turns out, there's a few common reasons they might need or prefer captions.

## Watch Without Sound 

watch a video without sound, captions for silent video, captioning

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Captions help the deaf watch video content that might not have been accessible to them otherwise. However, captions can do more than that. For people that hear, they may find themselves in a situation where they want to watch a show, but they don't have a way to control the sound with headphones or similar. In a situation like this, turning the sound off and reading captions can still allow them to watch their shows. Even if they can control sound with headphones, they may be in too noisy a situation, or a situation where they need to listen for certain cues - like somebody waiting for their flight in an airport. 

## SEO 

Boost SEO with captions, caption a video, captioning

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If you include a transcript of your video with your video description, search engines will crawl it. This can result in a better SEO rank than just posting the video alone. If you've posted a class of some kind, including the transcript can help people search for the part of the video they wanted. There are even some tools out there that will highlight the chunk of the transcript that matches what's being said in the video. Viewers can click around on the transcript to move the position in the video forward or backward. A great example of this can be seen on Coursera classes. 

## Increase Audience Comprehension
Captions help people more fully understand what's happening in a video. It can help someone taking an online class retain information or it can help someone better follow the plot of their favorite show. When it comes to entertainment like movies or television, captions can make viewers more aware of the music selected for a scene by including the sung lyrics. Frequently show creators choose music to underline a key theme or plot point. Seeing the lyrics can help make viewers more aware of the subtleties of what they're watching. 

## Draw Viewers Who Speak Other Languages
Subtitles are a type of caption, and when you include them you make your content more globally accessible. You can more easily reach viewers in their native language, and subtitles help you achieve that affordably. Completely dubbing content into another language requires voice actors and careful automated dialogue replacement (ADR). Adding captions makes your video accessible without all of this effort - you only need a good written translation instead. 

## Add Captions to Your Content Today
api.video allows you to caption all your video content using our Captions endpoint. Create a Web Video Text Tracks (WebVTT) file by hand or with an online tool to get started. Then upload it for your video and voila! your video content can start reaping the benefits of captions today. 

We have a tutorial to help you get started - [How to Add Captions to your Videos](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/)
[Start building now](https://dashboard.api.video/register)!


Caption your videos (classes, speeches, or entertainment)

Why you should caption your videos, whether they're classes, speeches, or entertainment

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Delegated Upload

Video Status

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Doug Twitter

Doug Sillars

NodeJS

Video captions/subtitles make it easier to follow along with your video. Whether your users have hearing issues or not, sometimes they may not want to have a loud speaker playing the video's audio, and adding captions allows them to understand the video.


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When adding captions to a video, you must create a WebVTT file. We've [written on the process of creating WebVTT files](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/). The format is not difficult to understand, but they are not simple to create manually, you need to break up a transcription into segments, and add start and stop times for each section.  


```

3
00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:11.759
The little train rumbled over the tracks.

4
00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:15.279
She was a happy little train for She had such

5
00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:16.719
a jolly load to carry.

6
00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480
Her cars were filled full of good things for boys

7
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:21.199
and girls.

```



In this post, we'll show how using the [Authot](https://www.authot.com/) transcription APIs can help you automatically add video captions to your videos, without the fuss of manually creating the VTT caption file.

Authot will receive the video file, make a transcription of the audio file, and then return a complete webVTT file. api.video can then ingest this file into the same videoID as the video, and the captions are added to the video.

It sounds like magic! To prove that it actually works, we've built a demo application [caption.a.video](https://caption.a.video) that utilizes api.video and Authot to host, stream and auto-caption your videos.  

## How it works

The first step is to upload your video to api.video.  This demo is built on top of a [delegated token upload](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/video-access-management-how-to-create-deliver-and-manage-private-videos-and-what/), meaning that a temporary public token was created that lets us upload right from the browser.



### Upload complete

Once the video is uploaded, api.video begins transcoding into a HLS sstream and an MP4 version of the movie.  To create a transcription, Authot requires the mp4 file, so the application uses the [video status](https://docs.api.video/reference#get-video-status/) endpoint to determine when the mp4 video has been encoded. This endpoint tells us when each video stream is ready for playback. Once the mp4 is encoded, we can submit the file to Authot for transcription.

### Transcription

Once the video has been submitted to Authot, the API returns the ID number of the transcription.  The Status endpoint tells us what state the transcription is in.  

The initial state is 0: Uploading

The final state is 10: transcoded

There are some states in between, including 2: transcribing

### Getting the WebVTT

Once the transcription is complete, (when Authot returns the status "10"),  the Node server requests the VTT file, and then uploads the file to the existing video at api.video.

### Completed

The webpage finally updates the text, saying "success".  Clicking the video link - opens the video, and the user can enable captions and watch them play back.


## Automatic captions!

Of course, automatic captions are not 100% accurate.  You may have a few words incorrectly transcribed.  However, in my testing the Authot API is pretty good, and the captions are of a very high quality.

On the other hand - manually creating captions will either take a lot of time, or cost a lot of money (to pay someone else to do the work).  The ease of use, and low cost makes auto-captioning a compelling choice


## Conclusion

We've described an application that allows you to upload a video and automatically add captions to the video.  Try it out today at [caption.a.video](https://caption.a.video). If you're curious on how we built this app, the code is available on [Github](https://github.com/dougsillars/captionavideo).  Let us know what you think by posting on our [community forum](https://community.api.video/).

Add captions, and watch your video watch time increase!

Auto Caption a video

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Authenticate

Captions allow hearing impaired users to read the words being said in your video. It also improves watch times, and can improve your SEO.

To add captions to your video, you'll need a VTT file for a video already uploaded to api.video.
> [Learn how to create a VTT Video Caption File](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/)

>[Video Upload Tutorial](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/video-upload-tutorial/)

> Find all details to display your captions in [our docs](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Captions#retrieve-a-caption)

## Authenticate your session
You will need your API key to obtain the access_token. You can find your API key in [your dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/login).

First, call the authentication endpoint and get your access token.

Example - Curl Request

replace {videoId} with the videoId of the video to receive captions; {lang} with the language of the video (ex: en-US for US english); and {access_token} with your access token.

### JSON response

### Make captions default

The JSON response above shows that by default, captions are off.  To add them, send a PATCH update command:


## Conclusion

Captions make it easier to watch a video. Not just for hearing impaired users, but for autoplaying videos that begin muted. You users can just read what is happening without sound, and then, if they are interested can un-mute the video. You can also add internationalization by translating the captions to additional languages.

Let us know how you are using captions in our [developer community](https://community.api.video). Happy building!

Adding captions

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Announcements

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Cédric Montet

Company News

AI, models, assistants, agents and prompts sound and look magical on social networks. But from the countless conversations we have had with startups and Enterprise customers over the last months, we have realized that the gap between existing video workflow and concrete use cases is real.

&nbsp;

Whether it’s getting transcripts in seconds, changing the language of your video or being able to search for items in your content – the benefits, value or potential savings you see and can get with AI are obvious.

&nbsp;

This is why we are thrilled to unveil how we are bringing AI into video, where we are heading and how you can get more value from it!

## What does the future of video streaming look like?

AI will completely upend video consumption as we know it today. We envision a world where video is not a content piece anymore which you can only start and stop – because AI will make videos discoverable and universally understandable. More than ever it resonates fully with our core mission – connecting people through their cameras.

&nbsp;

Since Day 1, we are building api.video to make your use cases, first, a reality and, then, a success.

&nbsp;

Back in the days, the fragmented video streaming market, the number of services you had to aggregate, the lack of innovation by the incumbents was preventing you from joining our video-first world, while your efforts and budgets were consumed by maintaining mashups instead of focusing on what matters. 

&nbsp;

This is why we have built the video backbone and seeing that, now, you host 2.5 millions videos on api.video and deliver dozens of millions videos every month demonstrate why simplicity, exceptional performances and an E2E approach were key.


&nbsp;

What’s happening today with AI, the efforts it requires to benchmark, setup and customize LLMs, to run and maintain them, the Infrastructure you have to build to execute them before getting any value, remind us of the state of the streaming market when we had launched api.video.

&nbsp;

Helping you to benefit from the AI revolution by abstracting all the underlying complexity became obvious and a natural next step in our evolution.

&nbsp;

To get there and to bring you there, here is what we are building, api.video’s very first – **Video Model Hub**.

&nbsp;

Let’s start with the root principles encompassing our work on this Hub:

&nbsp;

- **Open-source models over private ones.** We are long time believers and contributors of the open source community and we have chosen to run only models that are available publicly.

- **Your data is… your data.** You already trust us to host and deliver sensitive content,and this is exactly why we won’t train our own models or sell the data generated from your videos to anyone.

- **Privacy at the core.** We host and execute the models inside our own infrastructure. Your data remains inside the api.video infrastructure. Your videos or data is not sent to external partner, SaaS providers like OpenAI, or others.

- **We believe that every organization will eventually build their own models to leverage their unique data sets**. Next year, alongside the ability to run public and open source models on api.video, we will offer you the ability to host your own.

- **One API to rule them all.** As we have already replaced a dozen of services and vendors under GET/videos to make your videos available worldwide in seconds, we are abstracting all the complex work of executing LLMs behind clear and straightforward endpoints.

&nbsp;

At a glance, api.video brings to you today the power of AI by:

- Leveraging its years of experience in video management and building infrastructure, with GPUs.
- Combining with the most advanced LLMs available on the market.

so that you get more value from your videos in a few lines of code!

&nbsp;

## Here are the first three new features from the Video Model Hub

### 1. Summarization of long-form videos

Upload a video in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese or Chinese and get a text summary of 120 characters with the 3 key takeaways discussed in the video (within seconds!). Ideal to index or preview long form recorded meetings or courses!

&nbsp;

_The video below gives you a glimpse into AI summarization._


### 2. Transcription of your video in seconds

Get a transcript (in .VTTformat) from your uploaded video with the timecodes and offer the captions to your audiences. The best part? The api.video player supports VTT files so there’s nothing new that you need to build on your side!
This also makes your content more inclusive by making it accessible to people with hearing impairments. 


### 3. Translation of subtitles in 5 different languages (and more to come!)

Is your video in English? You can get Spanish and French subtitles. In Chinese? You will get English subtitles and three more languages. In short, this is the perfect solution to spread your message to your international audience!

&nbsp;

_Check out the video below for a glimpse into AI translation._ 


_Try it for yourself now by uploading a video in your [sandbox account](https://dashboard.api.video/overview)._ 

## What’s next

From video classification, alteration, generation, audio alteration, metadata generation, we have identified and plan to implement more than 200 additional use cases and features within the upcoming months!

&nbsp;

From next year, we will let you bring your own models on the infrastructure to get even better and more personalized outcomes.

&nbsp;

This is a long-journey and we’re only getting started. The whole team is thrilled to be at the forefront of this next chapter!


AI  >< Video: The Video Model Hub unveiled

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Arushi Gupta

Product updates

Our mission at api.video has always been to turn your use cases into successful realities. We built the video backbone with this goal in mind, and today, you host 2.5 million videos and deliver tens of millions more!

&nbsp;

Helping you harness the power of AI, while simplifying the problems that come along with, was the next direction to take. 

&nbsp;

To achieve this and to support your journey, we bring to you –  **AI features for your videos.**



## What are the AI video features?

### 1. AI video transcription & captions

With AI transcription, you can convert spoken words in your videos into written text, providing an accurate, searchable record of your content. This means you can easily create subtitles, enhancing accessibility for the hearing impaired or getting a written record of your meetings or events. 






### 2. AI video translation

With AI translation, you can translate your videos into multiple languages, ensuring that viewers from different linguistic backgrounds can understand and engage with your content. This can be useful if you’re hosting an international virtual event, creating multilingual educational materials, or expanding your marketing reach.

&nbsp;

Translation will be available for 5 languages – French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.


### 3. AI video summarization

Using AI summarization, you can distill lengthy content into concise, digestible summaries, allowing viewers to quickly grasp the key points without watching the entire video with AI video summarization. This can prove invaluable for educational lectures, business presentations, and lengthy seminars where time is of the essence.

## Do you really need this?

Well, the potential [uses of our AI features](https://api.video/use-cases/generative-ai/) are limitless! From e-learning and e-commerce to online streaming, these [AI features](https://api.video/product/ai-features/) are going to be the difference between ordinary and excellent. What can you do really?

&nbsp;

- Summarize educational lectures for a quick review
- Translate virtual events into multiple languages for global reach
- Transcribe video interviews for easy reference
- And so much more!

## More than just encoding, hosting, and delivery

We’ve gone beyond the basics of video hosting and delivery to give you features that are a step up from the ordinary. Now, not only can you ensure that your customers get video delivery at minimal cost, but also that they get the flexibility to offer content  in their preferred language and in a crisp manner. 

&nbsp;

Additionally, when the features are in production, you may also get the option of adding them via your API. This means that you get complete power to add the features you like without having to go through the dashboard.

## Your videos stay private to you

Your data is yours, and we respect that. You already trust us to host and deliver your most sensitive content, which is why we will never train our own models or sell data generated from your videos. Privacy is at the core of everything we do, and that’s why we host and execute the models within our own infrastructure. Your data stays entirely within the api.video ecosystem and is never sent to external partners, SaaS providers like OpenAI or others.

&nbsp;

_Our CEO and founder, Cedric Montet, speaks more about privacy being our topmost concern in his latest [blog](https://api.video/blog/company/video-model-hub-ai/)._

## Give it a try!

See a glimpse how these AI features look like with a free sandbox account! [Upload a video now in your dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/overview) and witness AI make a difference to your videos. As this is a Beta release, any feedback, questions, doubts on the features are welcome and much appreciated.

Create a sandbox account now 

Lights, Camera, AI Action! Discover our AI features

Introducing AI features to compliment your videos

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AI >< Video: The Video Model Hub unveiled

How to integrate AI facial expression detection to control your video – Javascript 

5 AI tools that will save you 10+ hours on video production

Lights, Camera, AI Action! 

In a world where time is money and creativity reigns supreme, AI tools that convert text to video are game-changers! These AI-powered wonders are designed to save your day—and countless hours. Join us as we unveil the top 5 AI video tools that can dramatically cut down your video creation and editing time. From transforming text into captivating visuals to adding that perfect touch of magic to your edits, these tools are set to become your new best friends in the digital playground!

## **1. CapCut**

At number 1, we have Capcut. 

&nbsp;

[CapCut](https://www.capcut.com/) surged in popularity due to its user-friendly interface and powerful editing features, making it a favorite among video creators. Its integration with TikTok and social media platforms is also reason for its widespread adoption.

&nbsp;

The best part about using CapCut is that most of these important features are available for free, which kicks out budget-constraints out of the window. CapCut uses AI to empower users to create stunning videos without needing any fancy editing experience. With mobile and desktop apps, as well as a web version, CapCut can easily be used on the go. 

&nbsp;

CapCut offers a range of AI-driven features that are very, very impressive. With 'Smart Cuts & Trims', CapCut's AI automatically detects shaky parts, long pauses, or unnecessary bits, suggesting cuts to tighten up your video and eliminate boring footage. 'Effortless Audio Magic' helps isolate voices and enhance audio quality, making your message crystal clear even if there’s noisy background interference. 'Instant Captions' auto-generate captions, making your videos more accessible and saving you time and effort. Moreover, if your filming didn't capture the perfect lighting, 'Light Like a Pro' allows CapCut’s AI to adjust lighting in your videos post-production, creating the ideal mood.

What I most love about CapCut AI video generator is its AI-driven background removal feature which eliminates the need for a green screen, allowing me to replace any background with an image or color of my choice.

&nbsp;

Something to note about Capcut is that the free version includes watermarks on exported videos. which can be removed only with a paid subscription. This may potentially pose a barrier for you if you’re a budget-conscious user.

## **2. Runway**

[Runway](https://runwayml.com/) can be called a virtual sorcerer's wand for video editing! It has the potential to be an entire AI video production studio, so it can basically create an entire movie without filming a single frame — if you have the time, that is. Runway can generate videos and animations from simple text prompts, create animations from still images, generate lip-syncing avatars based on a recording of your voice, and even allow you to train your own AI models. 

&nbsp;

Runway might be a little intimidating in the beginning. That’s because it has an array of features that take time to understand, execute and implement, and that could be slightly time-taking and if I can say, complex.

Another aspect to note is that while Runway offers a range of pricing plans, the advanced features that truly set it apart are locked behind higher-tier subscriptions, making it less accessible for small businesses or individual creators on a tight budget.

## **3. Invideo AI**

[Invideo AI](https://invideo.io/ai/) is an excellent tool for generating a starting point for your videos. It helps you to quickly create a basic structure for your videos, which can then be further customized and polished. The  features allow you to input simple prompts, from which the tool generates an initial draft that includes relevant footage, transitions, and effects. 

&nbsp;

A few standout features of Invideo AI are an extensive stock media library that offers a range of options to choose from, AI-powered script generation which creates a complete script for your videos and, voiceover addition. Their AI voiceover generator is particularly good because it has an option to add your own voice which it then uses to narrate scripts in. The narration is also decent, with multiple accents and focussing well on the feeling, intent, and emotion behind each word.

Overall, the tool is great for YouTubers and people who want to start off their video making journey with minimal effort. 

&nbsp;

One of the shortcomings of Invideo AI is its dependency on a stable internet connection, as the tool is cloud-based. This can be a significant limitation for users in areas with unreliable internet access. I also noticed that rendering videos on Invideo AI can sometimes be slow, especially for longer or high-resolution projects, so keep enough time in hand before you expect a final video. 

## **4. Wondershare Filmora**

[Wondershare Filmora](https://filmora.wondershare.net/de/ad/videobearbeitungsprogramm-brand.html) has been a staple in the video editing world for over 15 years. Despite its long history, it's continuously evolving, with a suite of AI features that enhance video quality without requiring professional training or extensive time investments. 

&nbsp;

Filmora is a popular choice among full-time influencers and video editors for advanced-level video editing. It is also a preference because the tool keeps evolving based on new technological developments, and therefore is easily able to meet the demanding standards of modern digital media.

&nbsp;

Some of Filmora’s features include 'AI smart cutout', which allows you to cut objects out of scenes simply by painting their area on the screen, and 'AI audio denoise', which helps control background noise. 'AI audio stretch' lets you extend music to match scene transitions, while AI motion tracking enables face blurring for privacy or fun effects. They also have AI remove background which allows you to create imaginative scenes without hefty budgets. 

Wondershare also provides detailed explanations of these features on their website, so if you ever face a problem using any of them, be sure to check their dedicated pages. 


&nbsp;

However, do note that Filmora's performance can be sluggish when handling large files or high-resolution videos, leading to slower rendering times and potential crashes at times.

## **5. Canva Magic Studio**

Easy to use. Neat interface. Quick results. 

&nbsp;

Those were the three things I liked best about [Canva Magic Studio](https://www.canva.com/magic/). 

&nbsp;

Canva Magic Studio, though currently in a very basic state, looks very promising as an AI video tool. Having been a fan of Canva for infographics, presentations and social posts since the past few years, I have full confidence that their AI video tool will evolve too. 

&nbsp;

As of now, Canva Magic Studio gives you amazing results when it comes to video quality and is also very quick to generate the final video. The good video quality comes from its integration with [Runway](https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-video-generator/#runway) (our #2 in the list).

&nbsp;

To show you an example, I used the prompt: "A cute rabbit watching a video on a laptop”. And the [result](https://www.canva.com/design/DAGGCqwwf4A/GS7q42J5C9nx26gxJGR9lA/watch) was surprisingly very apt!

Canva Magic Studio is a great option if you want to bulk-create your social media posts – create a chunk of Instagram reels or Facebook ads in a go or create similar kinds of videos using a single template. The template options Canva offers have a wide range and are decent for beginners to start with.

## Sora – Open AI’s video generator

Open AI sparked a wave of excitement around AI with ChatGPT, demonstrating its incredible potential in natural language processing. Now, it's taking things a step further with [Sora, an innovative AI](https://openai.com/index/sora/) video creator.

Open AI recently shared a series of tweets showing the potential of Sora and I must say, I am amazed. Be it [several giant mammoths](https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1758192960116785459) rushing through a snowy meadow or a [fluffy monster](https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1758192964222988506) behind a melted candle, the kind of videos Sora will be able to create is astounding! It looks like it will be able to take detailed prompts into consideration, just like it did with ChatGPT, to create exactly what the user needs.

&nbsp;

As Sora continues to evolve and improve, it will undoubtedly shape the future of video production, showing way to new forms of storytelling and engagement in the years to come.

## AI is great – but it cannot replace you

While these AI video tools can ease the load for you and save some time, they cannot really take the place of your creativity, intuition, and emotional intelligence. In the end, it is your perspective, personal touch, and experiences that shape the videos you create. 

&nbsp;

_If you’re finding a place to store, host and deliver your [AI generated videos](https://api.video/use-cases/generative-ai/), api.video could be just what you’re looking for. With quick video upload options, flexible hosting capabilities, ability to add watermarks and keep videos private, you can choose api.video for all your video needs. If you would like to test out our features, [sign-up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for a sandbox account now and you wound’t be disappointed._

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5 ways the human eye impacts how we do video compression

7 eye-opening stats that prove the impact of product videos in e-commerce

5 ways to utilize product videos to boost your e-commerce sales

Yohann Martzolff

React

In today's tech-driven world, enhancing user interaction and creating immersive experiences is crucial. One exciting way to achieve this is by integrating AI facial expression detection into your video content.  In this blog, we'll guide you through the steps to <u>integrate AI facial expression detection to control your videos using React</u>. 

&nbsp;

Let's start.

&nbsp;

_*To learn how to do the integration with Javascript, head to this [blog](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/AI-facial-expression-detection-javascript/).*_

## 1. Create a minimal React app

As the first step, we need to create a new React app. Run the following command for the same. 

Now add the MediaPipe and the api.video React player packages

## 2. Add a video player

You’re going to use the official [api.video’s React player](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-react-player) in this application, but feel free to use your favorite one and adapt the callbacks to it.

&nbsp;

Replace the code inside `App.tsx` with the following.
The `playerRef` allows us to control the [api.video player](https://api.video/product/player/).

Run your application with the npm run start command and go to `http://localhost:3000/`, you should see a video that you can play, pause or mute. 

## 3. Record your facial expressions

To control the player with your facial expressions, you need to stream your face through your webcam and pass this streamed data to the trained machine-learning model.

&nbsp;

Add a `<video />` HTML tag to `App.tsx`. 
Its `webcamRef` allows the video element to be targeted.
Apply a `display: "none"` inline style to hide the element, and an `autoPlay` attribute so the webcam stream time is updated. 

&nbsp;

**Note:** You can remove the `display: "none"` style and customize your CSS, it doesn’t matter.

## 4. Load the machine-learning model

Before we can use the machine-learning model, we must wait for it to finish loading. These models can be large and take a moment to get everything needed to run.

&nbsp;

Put this logic inside a `useEffect` and store the `faceLandmarker` class as a React stateful value.

## 5. Start detecting the webcam stream

Once the machine-learning model has been loaded and the `faceLandmarker` class has been instantiated, you can start detecting the stream.

&nbsp;

Create a new `useEffect`

Run your application with the `npm run start` command, go to `http://localhost:3000/`, and open your console. You should see a lot of console logs appearing each millisecond.

&nbsp;

Each one of them logs an array of objects of type:

## 6. Use the facial expression detection results

You now have access to a list of facial expression detection results. Use them to do whatever you want and in this case, to control your video player.

Let’s assume that you want to play the video when you smile, and pause it when you do a kiss.

Check the facial expression detection results on each frame and play or pause your video depending on the score of the wanted result by replacing your console.log with the following.

Once again, run your application with the `npm run start` command, go to `http://localhost:3000/`, and try to smile at your webcam. It should trigger the player’s `play` callback and play the video. Then, try to do a kiss ( 😗 ) in front of your webcam, and the video should pause.

## 7. Display the results

It can be helpful to have a visual representation of the detection results. Display these results as a list and highlight the detected facial expressions by adding a `<ul />` HTML tag to your JSX and creating a new ref to target it.

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