Did you know that over 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute?
It is no secret that YouTube is the go-to platform for countless users seeking to learn, connect, and entertain themselves. Its vast library of video content offers comprehensive answers to various queries. However, there are cases where a text transcript of a YouTube video becomes necessary—either for accessibility reasons, content repurposing, SEO optimization, or simply for learning and studying.
This guide will walk you through various methods to get a YouTube video transcript, exploring built-in YouTube features and third-party tools such as Saima AI that can enhance your transcription experience.
What Is a YouTube Video Transcript?
Being a valuable tool for enhancing accessibility and comprehension, a YouTube video transcript is a text version of its spoken content. This text can be generated automatically by YouTube's speech recognition technology or uploaded manually by the content creator for several reasonable purposes. The transcripts help hearing-impaired people access the video and fully engage with the content; some people, such as language learners, prefer reading to listening or following the written text to support their comprehension. By the way, listening to native speech is one of the most effective ways of learning a language.
On the other hand, video transcripts promote easy referencing for specific information and boost a video’s SEO, ensuring its searchability, discoverability, and saving time.
Statistics show that transcriptions significantly improve engagement while video watching.
How Do YouTube Transcripts Work?
As I mentioned, transcripts can be auto-generated or manually uploaded. The first ones are implemented by AI-powered speech recognition; however, apart from being helpful, these captions may contain errors, especially in noisy videos or those delivered by non-native speakers. Manual transcripts are uploaded by the content creator and can be accessed and copied by viewers for reference. In some cases, video creators can edit the auto-generated text, thus ensuring higher accuracy.
What You Can Do with YouTube Transcripts
You may ask, ‘Isn’t it just a plain text representation of a video?’ At first sight, it is! However, a YouTube transcript serves several meaningful purposes, and here’s how you can leverage it:
Improved Accessibility: Through transcripts, your videos become accessible to viewers with hearing disabilities, allowing them to capture the full content by reading it.
Boosted SEO: Search engines use transcripts to place your videos in search results and increase their overall visibility.
Content Repurposing: You can transfer video transcripts into various written formats, such as blog posts, articles, social media content, or ebooks, expanding your content's reach and potential audience.
Translation for a Global Audience: Translating transcripts into multiple languages makes your content accessible to a wider international audience.
Increased Engagement: Transcripts allow viewers to easily search for specific information within the video, quote sections, or share key points, leading to greater interaction with your content.
Archiving and Documentation: At their core, transcripts are a written record of your video content, which means they can be preserved and referenced in the future.
Legal Compliance: If you create educational or government content, it may be required to contain transcripts for legal compliance.
Apart from all the described benefits, transcripted videos have a positive impact on learning outcomes. A study found that after one semester of using captions and interactive transcripts, students' exam scores improved by 3-8%.
How to Transcribe YouTube Videos on a Desktop
There are two methods of getting a YouTube video transcript: the first one suggests the usage of YouTube’s built-in features, while the other one offers the integration of AI-powered third-party tools. So let’s check each of them!
Using YouTube’s Built-in Feature
Open the browser and search for a YouTube video you want to transcribe. Shorts and music videos usually don’t provide automatic transcription.
Click the three-dot menu (or “More” button) below the video.
Select “Show transcript” at the very bottom of the description. Not all videos offer transcripts, so getting an automatically generated transcript will be impossible for this video if you don't see this button.
If you are lucky, a transcript will appear on the right side of the screen.
Adjust the language. The default text language is the spoken language of the video; however, some videos provide multi-language transcriptions that can be adjusted by clicking the “Language” button in the bottom-left corner of the transcript box.
Now, you can copy and paste the text into a document for later use.
Using Third-Party Tools
The following desktop-friendly third-party tools offer higher accuracy and additional features, ensuring a more advanced transcription experience.
Otter.ai: This AI-powered tool offers real-time speech-to-text transcription. All you need is to just open it in a separate browser window and tap—it will automatically transcribe while the video plays
Captions.ai: Provides automated captions and transcriptions that can be downloaded and added to your videos.
Zapier: This tool automates the process of extracting video transcriptions through integration with other software. It detects the task from the required channel, sends it to the transcription service, and receives a transcript that can be saved in Google or any other platform for easy access.
TechSmith: Provides tools, including Camtasia and Snagit, that allow video-to-text conversion with editing features. They can generate transcripts and captions from recorded videos that can be then edited for improved accuracy before exporting them in a variety of formats.
How to Transcribe YouTube Videos on a Phone
YouTube’s built-in features are also available for getting a YouTube transcript on your mobile device.
Using YouTube’s Mobile App
- Open the YouTube app on your phone and find the video you want to transcribe.
- Tap on the “...more” or on the video title to expand the description box.
- Scroll down and select “Show transcript” (keep in mind that not all videos have this feature).
- The description box will be replaced by a video transcript, which can be copied for further use.
Using Mobile Transcription Apps
If you are a “mobile-first” user, here are 3 apps you can use for transcription.
Notta: Supports 58 languages and multiple file formats to convert audio and video into text in three simple steps: uploading a file, starting automatic transcription, and enjoying the result.
Tactiq: Works with video conferencing tools and YouTube videos.
Kome AI: Transcribes YouTube videos directly via the provided URL.
Saima: The Best Alternative to Generate YouTube Transcripts
While all generated video transcripts can contain errors and may require further editing, Saima AI has developed an innovative solution that can support manual transcription by enhancing your video-watching experience and making content more engaging and accessible. This video speech speed controller ensures better transcription accuracy and comprehension of the content through its useful AI-powered features.
Why Choose Saima AI?
Adaptive Video Speed: Saima can automatically adjust a video playback speed to improve comprehension.
Skip Silence Feature: By removing unnecessary pauses and silence gaps, this tool streamlines content consumption.
Voice Booster: Make more accurate transcription with enhanced audio clarity, eliminating distractions and improving focus.
Video Note-Taking: With synchronized video note-taking features, you can write down the key points right underneath the video while watching. This provides higher convenience and minimizes the chance of missing any important information.
By integrating Saima AI, you can optimize video transcription workflows, ensuring better accuracy and comprehension.
Conclusion
To summarize, transcripts can improve the overall user experience by providing additional context, clarifying spoken words, and offering a way to quickly skim the video's content. They also demonstrate attention to detail and a commitment to accessibility, which enhances your professional image and credibility.
If you target accessibility, content repurposing, and SEO, transcribing YouTube videos is an essential stage. Enhance your transcription and boost views and productivity with a range of transcription options, including YouTube's built-in tools, third-party transcription services, and Saima AI's intelligent video capabilities.
Get Saima free for a next-level video transcription experience!