Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR Expressive Captions finally bring emotion to YouTube subtitles, available now across all devices.
The feature is now live for English videos uploaded after October 2025, with a wider rollout planned.
Captions can now show tone, emphasis, and ambient cues like sighs, applause, or gasps.
Standard captions have always been functional, but rarely fun. They get the job done if you’re watching on mute or have hearing accessibility needs, but they’ve historically stripped the video of its emotion and energy. Well, that’s officially changing, thanks to Google’s latest accessibility updates.
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YouTube is rolling out Expressive Captions, and it’s arguably one of the most interesting updates to hit the platform in a while. This feature uses AI alongside regular transcription to reveal the meaning behind the words. It’s now available for English-language videos uploaded after October 2025, and YouTube plans to add it to more videos soon.
Now, instead of plain text, viewers see captions that carry tone, emphasis, emotion, and even background cues like sighs, applause, or a gasp. If someone sighs or gasps, the caption will say so. You’ll see tags like “[joy]” or “[sadness]” before the text, so you won’t miss sarcasm or heartbreak if you can’t hear the audio.
This upgrade didn’t appear out of nowhere. Expressive Captions first launched on Android as an evolution of Live Caption, picking up where the basic word-for-word system left off. Android’s version didn’t only capture what was said, but also how it was said. If someone whispered, the caption reflected that. If they yelled, you saw that intensity. If someone dragged out a word for dramatic effect, the text stretched with them.
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