Word-by-word captions
Word-by-word captions, timed to every spoken word
By the Samsaam team · Updated
Word-by-word captions show each word the moment it is spoken, instead of putting a whole sentence on screen at once. They are the standard look for Shorts, Reels and TikTok because the viewer’s eye follows the speaker’s rhythm.
Samsaam makes them automatically: the transcript carries a start and end time for every word, and the animation is driven by those timestamps — so a word never appears before it is said.
Four ways to show captions word by word
| Style | What the viewer sees | Samsaam templates |
|---|---|---|
| Reveal | Words appear one after another as they are spoken | Word by Word and Attention |
| Single word | Only the word being spoken is on screen | Focus |
| Active-word highlight | The whole line is visible; the spoken word changes colour or pops | Green Pop and Ripple |
| Fill-in | The line fills in behind the speech, like karaoke | Ink Card |
Any template can be set to animate by line or by word (the “Animate by” control), and a highlighter can sit behind the line or behind just the spoken word — so any style can become a word-by-word style.
Word-by-word animation in the editor
How to make word-by-word captions
- Upload your video and choose the spoken language.
- Pick a word-by-word template, or any template with “Animate by” set to Word.
- Check the words in the editor and drag any word’s timing on the timeline if it lands early or late.
- Select a word to emphasise it — colour, weight or scale — for the key word of each line.
- Export the finished video, or an overlay for your editor.
Why word-level timing matters
Word-by-word captions only look right when each word’s timing is right. Tools that time whole lines have to guess where words fall inside them, so fast speech drifts out of sync. Samsaam’s timing is per word from the start, and every word stays editable — fix the text and the timing and animation follow.
Frequently asked questions
What are word-by-word captions called?
They are also called karaoke captions, word-level captions or dynamic captions. The common idea is that the caption changes on each spoken word rather than each sentence.
Can I control how many words appear at once?
Templates set a default caption length and line count, and you can rearrange the lines of any caption in the editor. Single-word templates show one word at a time.
Do word-by-word captions work in Hindi, Urdu or Arabic?
Yes. Timing is per word in all 90+ supported languages, including right-to-left scripts.
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