Closed captions

Closed captions are timed text tracks delivered as sidecar files with Moments, Story pages, and Videos. Viewers turn captions on in the player and pick a language when more than one track is available. This article covers how captions differ from text localization and what you control in the Experiences SDK.

Closed captions vs text localization

	Closed captions	Text localization
Purpose	Timed text synced to video	Titles, descriptions, metadata subtitle, CTA copy
Delivery	Sidecar files (for example, VTT, SRT) on the content item	Translated fields from the CMS
Viewer choice	CC button and language picker in the player	Device or app language via `setPreferredLanguage`
Your SDK API	Player styles and Web `shouldAllowClosedCaptions`	`setPreferredLanguage`

Don't use setPreferredLanguage to select a caption track. It only affects metadata text. See Text localization.

How content provides captions

Sidecar caption files are created during content creation in Arena (for example, in Create, Rules, or Clipro). That step produces the timed caption files and attaches them to the asset. When the asset is published, it reaches CMS with sidecar files already included. CMS schedules and delivers the content; the Experiences SDK reads closedCaptions on each item and plays the track the viewer selects.

Each item exposes a closedCaptions list: one entry per language, each with file URLs. The SDK shows the captions button when tracks exist and disables it when they don't. You don't generate or upload sidecars from the SDK.

What you control in the SDK

Control	Web	Android / iOS
Turn CC on in the app	Set `shouldAllowClosedCaptions` to `true` at SDK init. Default is `false`.	Show or hide the CC button with `buttons.captions.isVisible` on Moments, Stories, and Videos player styles.
Button look and placement	Player theme and button order (for example, `CLOSED_CAPTIONS` in `bottomIconsButtonOrder`). See Web theme: video and Web theme: moment.	Reorder bottom or top stack buttons. See the player buttons style articles under SDK Android and SDK iOS.
Default CC language	Not configurable from your app.	Not configurable from your app.
Which sidecar file plays	Not configurable. The SDK uses the language the viewer picked.	Not configurable. The SDK uses the language the viewer picked.
Persist viewer CC choice	Handled by the SDK (viewer's last selected language).	Handled by the SDK (viewer's last selected language).

Playback limits

Picture-in-picture: captions aren't shown in PiP.
Casting: captions stay on the device, not on the cast target.

Details are in Player capabilities and features.