Auto-generated Transcripts ensure accessibility for all, and here is what you can do to make your transcripts work even harder for your show.
As always, Apple Podcasts keep improving on how we can listen and interact with our favourite shows. Now everyone with iOS 17.4 and up can get access to a new feature – auto-generated transcripts. This time-saving perk of Apple Podcasts is going to hopefully give a big boost to independent podcasters who might not be uploading their transcripts to their RSS, and crucially – it will make nearly all podcasts on Apple Podcasts more accessible for the hard of hearing audiences.
And why else is this a big deal?
Many reasons. This auto-generated option for Apple Podcasts will now make your podcast more SEO-friendly as it will pull out more keywords from your transcript to help it appear in the app’s search. Driving organic traffic to your show’s feed is no easy feat, and this will simply improve your indexing by giving your podcast a text version of the show.
It is also extremely easy to use. You can scroll through the show’s transcript and even search for keywords within it to find the exact spot in your show that you were interested in. This will in turn improve your memorisation and recall of any content you hear in podcast form. The ‘karaoke-like’ view of the transcript playing and highlighting the words as they are spoken can also be an amazing way to learn languages (as this feature is already available in languages like German, Spanish and French, as well as English).
Lastly, it will make your show easier to repurpose. If you were not pulling out transcripts of your show before this update (you should have been, really), now you can simply take parts of the text from the Apple Podcasts app to repurpose it for beautiful IG posts or any other short-form social media posts, and slot them into your content calendar.
… And are there any issues with auto-generated transcripts?
Some. As a rule of thumb, it is always a good idea to be fully in control of all of your editorial. That includes transcripts too. Auto-generated transcripts might not be entirely accurate, and they might also not be as accessible as we would like them to be. Ensuring you are uploading your own transcripts to your RSS is still the way to go if you can make it happen – so have a look at where your podcast is hosted and if the option to upload your own text is there, go for it.
Similarly, you might want to customise your transcripts to the style of your show. If you just use the auto-generated transcripts by Apple Podcasts, this will be harder to do as the system will simply convert your audio as it hears it. This might not include all of your music notes, or any other explanations of sound effects or pauses that you may want to include.
And how can I even use the new Apple Podcasts’ transcripts?
In the Apple Podcasts app (iPhone, iPad or the Apple Podcasts Mac app), choose an episode of your favourite show and under the artwork and play/pause control, you will see a speech bubble icon. Simply tap that icon to reveal your transcript and enjoy!
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