Whether you enjoy it or not, there’s no denying that YouTube has been one of the greatest gifts of all time to autodidacts. Whether you want to learn how to play the guitar or fix your toilet, there’s a slew of YouTube videos just waiting to help you (andwe have some amazing phonesfor you to watch them on).
But as awesome as the videos are for learning, they’re not suited to all tasks. Suppose you want tolearn how to turn off dark mode, for example. In that case, you’re better off with written directions than watching and pausing a video tutorial over and over again throughout the process. Thankfully, there’s a happy middle ground: you can read the transcript of the video.
How to view the transcript of a YouTube video from the desktop browser
The transcript is just two clicks away if you’re using your PC or Mac to watch YouTube videos.
Congratulations, you’ve unlocked a transcript! As you’re reading your YouTube transcript, you may jump to the part in the video from which the text is generated by clicking on it. Some videos have the option to change the language of the transcript, which you can do by clicking the down arrow next to the language. You can also find the option to toggle time stamps on and off under the ⋮ icon.
How to view the transcript of a YouTube video from the mobile app
If you’re like most people, you probably use the YouTube app from your Android or iPhone, not your computer. However, like with a desktop, the video transcript is only two taps away.
The transcripts on the app work exactly like they do in the browser, although you can’t toggle the time stamps off. If the transcript is available in another language, you can change it via the menu under the⋮icon.
How to save the transcript of a YouTube video
There isn’t a way to save a YouTube video transcript. The best you’re able to do is copy the transcript (which isn’t possible on the mobile app) and paste it into a word processor such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
Alternatively, you can use a browser extension to do it for you. Chrome has theYouTube Transcript Extractor, which copies the transcript to your clipboard (sans timestamps) and generates a summary which it also pastes to the clipboard. Firefox has some add-ons available for quickly copying transcripts, but we couldn’t get any of them to work.
How are transcripts of YouTube videos made?
YouTube transcripts are made in one of two ways. Either the content creator adds a subtitle track, or YouTube uses automatic transcription to do it for you. If you’ve ever tried to create a subtitle track for a video or transcribe audio, you know that YouTube offers robust tools to help you get it done. Still, the process is tedious. What’s much easier is letting YouTube do it for you.
YouTube has been making auto-generated closed captions since 2009 via speech recognition and caption timing software. Even though this software is much better than it was a decade ago, it doesn’t transcribe perfectly, so don’t expect a perfectly accurate transcript.
Go forth and extract the word
Although transcripts on YouTube videos aren’t a new feature, most people don’t know they exist. Once you know they’re there, you’ll find they’re good for all kinds of things, especially for quickly digesting long-form content like podcasts. And if you end up using it for academic work, you’ll need toknow how to cite it.
