Caption translation · iPhone
Translate your video's subtitles into another language, on the phone
Captions in your viewer's language reach people the original never would. Doing it by hand means exporting subtitles, running them through a translator and repairing the timing line by line.
Zella does it in place. Generate captions, pick a target language, and the caption track is rewritten without your video, your audio or your words leaving the phone.
- iPhone
- Free on every tier
Quick answer
To translate a video's subtitles into another language, Zella for iPhone rewrites a finished caption track into one of 19 languages, entirely on the device through Apple's Translation framework, on iOS 18 or later. Each translated line is re-flowed onto its original on-screen window, so word-pop and karaoke styles keep animating on time, and the strongest words are re-emphasised in the new language. Zella has no network path for it at all, and it is free.
How to do it in Zella
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Step 1: Generate captions
Add captions to the clip first. Translation works on a finished caption track.
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Step 2: Fix the transcript
Correct names and jargon in the transcript word editor before you translate. Corrections carry through to every language, which beats fixing a language you do not read.
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Step 3: Pick a target language
Choose one of the 19, such as Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Arabic or Japanese. Zella rewrites the caption track in place.
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Step 4: Download the language once if asked
The first time you use a language, iOS may need its offline model. Zella tells you to fetch it from Settings › Translate; after that it works offline.
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Step 5: Check and export
Play it back to check the emphasis, then export with the translated captions burned in.
Why do it this way
Timing survives translation
Each line keeps its original on-screen window, so animated presets still land on the spoken beat in the new language.
No network path
Translation runs through Apple's on-device framework. Your audio, video and caption text are not sent anywhere.
Two routes to another language
Translate a finished track into one of 19 languages, or flip the English captions switch to caption a take in English straight from another supported spoken language.
What you need
- iPhone on iOS 18 or later (on older versions the option is not offered)
- Captions on the clip first
- A one-time offline language download from Settings › Translate for each new language
- Caption translation is iPhone-only; the Mac app transcribes the same 27 spoken languages but does not translate a caption track
- Free on every tier: no watermark, exports up to 2 minutes at 1080p
Questions
Which languages can I translate captions into?
19: Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Arabic, Japanese, Indonesian, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, Dutch, Polish, Ukrainian and English (UK).
Does translation upload my video or captions?
No. It runs through Apple's on-device Translation framework and Zella has no network path for it. The only download is the language model iOS fetches once from Settings › Translate.
Can I translate captions on the Mac?
No. Caption translation is an iPhone feature and needs iOS 18 or later. You can translate on the phone, then hand the project to the Mac as a .zella file to finish it there.
What if I speak Bangla or another language Zella cannot transcribe?
Translation needs a caption track first, and Zella does not transcribe Bangla or Telugu on-device. Instead, speak a language Zella cannot transcribe, such as Bangla, and turn on English captions, the switch under the language picker in Studio: you get English captions from the same take, on the phone.
What is the difference between translation and English captions?
Translation rewrites a finished caption track into one of 19 languages. English captions is a switch that writes English captions directly from speech in another supported language. Both run on the phone.
Related tools
Read the manual