The good news is that (as previously promised by Apple), the Apple Podcasts app for iOS and iPadOS received CC (closed captions) capabilities starting with iOS 17.4 (and continuing with 17.4.1). Apple states that it can equally accept transcripts via RSS in the standard .SRT and .VTT formats. The bad news is that Apple (so far) has added weak support. When I say that it is weak, I mean it does not yet support anything more than plain text, even though any player that plays .SRT or .VTT should support italics, since italics is part of those formats, using a simple HTML code at the beginning and the end of the italicized word(s). The same transcripts I create with italics display perfectly (including the italics where appropriate) on the Bunny Stream player (reviewed here), on my CapicúaFM.com website (as covered in this recent article) and on YouTube. However, in the current Apple Podcasts app as of iOS 17.4.1, we get garbage characters before and after the text that should be italicized, as I’ll demonstrate ahead. According to the response I received from Apple Tech Support, this is to be expected for now, since the CC in Apple Podcasts currently supports only plain text. There are also three other captions-related problems I discovered in the backend of Apple Podcasts Connect, which I’ll document ahead.
Recap of when we should use italics
Per many grammar and style guides I have read over the decades both in Castilian and in English, we are supposed to use italics:
- When using a foreign term like Déjà vu
- When mentioning the name of an album, magazine, movie, newspaper, radio show (including podcasts) theatrical play or website quoted without the TLD suffix. (However, internal songs, scenes, articles or episodes are not supposed to be in italics, but in bold or quotation marks.)
- Sometimes for general emphasis
That’s why I have been using italics that way for decades in all of my writing and now in transcripts for closed captions.
On my CapicúaFM show, we occasionally mention and analyze theatrical plays (i.e. Nadie te conoce como yo or Nobody knows you better than I do), TV shows (i.e. Star Trek: Picard) and movies (Los amantes del círculo polar or Lovers of the Arctic Circle). Those names of plays, movies and TV shows need to be in italics in the podcast episode notes and the transcripts. Even more often, we mention book names, not only my own books (a few examples include Branded RSS Podcasting, Chromebooks for bilingual writers, The Castilian Conspiracy, WordPress security + multi-backups, Get phone privacy) but the books written by many authors who have edited, published and done wide distribution of their books (including print books, ebooks and audiobooks) vía TecnoTur Publishing (a few examples include Aquí estoy, Madre Tierra, El mundo según Teresa Di Sclafani, Santiago Valiente). Those book names must also be in italics in the podcast episode notes and in the closed captions. Fortunately, we now have proper italics within the closed captions and immersive reading on our CapicúaFM website, as shown in this recent article.
Demonstration of Apple Podcasts closed captions with italics flaw
For those audio podcast apps that already have a recognized transcript by Apple, a new button is visible on the lower left of the Apple Podcast app, as pointed out in the still image above.
In the above partial screen recording of CapicúaFM episode 86, you will see the garbage characters before and after the text that should be italicized, which occur whenever we mention book names in this example. I made the above screen recording from an iPhone using an app I’ll be reviewing soon, together with the well known ScreenFlow. Then I cropped the screen recording using Apple Photos before uploading for playback here).
Although the Apple Podcasts new CC (closed captions) feature does a reasonable job of immersive reading (as covered in detail in this article) by emphasizing the currently spoken text in lighter colored text, its visual contrast is much weaker than the premium PowerPress player (demonstrated in the next section below). The current version of the Apple Podcasts’ CC feature fails with italics, while other players like Bunny Stream and YouTube display CC with proper italics (when appropriate) and have done so for a very long time.
CC (closed captions) with italics playing properly in the premium PowerPress player
The above is an actually interactive player, not a screenshot. So far, episodes 86 and 87 have closed captions with proper italics.
Click on the Play button above before clicking on the CC button.
Like the Bunny Stream player (reviewed here), the premium PowerPress player (covered in detail in this article: Podcast playback: immersive reading + italics on website-desktop & mobile) properly displays italics when properly encoded in the transcript placed in the RSS feed and offers superior contrast and use of yellow color in the highlighted text.
3 related problems in the backend of Apple Podcasts Connect regarding the new CC (closed captions)
Apple is offering one of two options with the new CC (closed captions): either autogenerated (by Apple) or producer supplied. There are two settings in the Apple Podcasts Connect backend about this which have issues, even when accessed by Apple’s own Safari browser version 17.4.1 (19618.1.15.11.14) with macOS 14.4.1 (23E224) on a Mac Mini M1, so the two problems to be described below are not caused by browser dependencies:
- The first setting is per episode. You select the particular episode, then Audio and Transcriptions and finally you click on Free RSS. There you choose (for the particular episode) whether you want listeners via the Apple Podcasts app to have access to the autogenerated transcription (made by Apple’s AI) or the producer supplied transcription (in either .SRT or VTT format via RSS and generally much higher quality). After you choose which one you want (presumably, the producer supplied one), you click to accept and save the settings. When I first did that with episode 86, Apple Podcast Connect refused to save the setting and instead sent me to pay a yearly fee (U$19.99) to join Apple Podcasters Program, even though that program is supposed to be required only for having a paid podcast via Apple Podcasts. Even though I have no immediate plans to offer a paid podcast via Apple Podcasts, I paid the U$19.99 just to reach my goal of having Apple Podcasts use my supplied transcript for CC (closed captions) instead of the autogenerated one. Fortunately, this yearly U$19.99 fee is for all podcasts under the same account, not for each podcast.
- The second setting is global, to set the default for other episodes. You select the particular podcast (in this case) CapicúaFM among all of the podcasts under the same account. Then, under Availability (or Disponibilidad if your browser is set for Castilian.) The last option in the list is Transcription (Transcripciones). We get to have the default be autogenerated by Apple or to use producer-provided transcripts, if and when available. After selecting the second one and saving the setting, the setting is not saved. Instead, the setting is ignored. Until Apple fixes this in the Apple Podcast Connect backend, I’ll have to set and save it manually for each episode where I add my own transcripts.
- Apple takes at least 24 hours to notice that there is a supplied transcription in the RSS feed, after Apple notices and lists a new audio episode which includes a valid transcription in .SRT or .VTT format. That means that people who are following the podcast via the Apple Podcast app will be notified that the new episode exists, before even showing the producer-supplied transcript to activate CC (closed captions). I have no idea why Apple takes so long to do that.
Apple Podcasts team, please fix all these issues ASAP. If you need help learning how to interpret and display italics in HTML, just ask the Safari team, since the Safari team has been doing this properly since 2003, which is why italicized words appear properly in Safari. Our friends from SoftNI have just confirmed that their software for CC (closed captions) has supported italics since its first DOS system in 1986.
Upcoming related articles
- The premium PowerPress player is great. Let’s make it perfect!
- Use a Stream Deck to facilitate inserting italic codes into transcripts for CC (closed captions)
- Descript’s strengths and weaknesses for closed captions
Conclusions based upon the current situation
Even though the wonderful premium PowerPress player is not yet perfect (I’ll be publishing an article with suggestions for the developer), the premium PowerPress player fortunately displays proper italics and also offers a much better experience with immersive reading, due to the superior color contrast in the selected text being spoken. As a result, the user experience is much better when consuming these enriched audio podcasts directly from the podcast website. While this is the case, it is up to us, the audio podcasters who use to the premium PowerPress player with humanly-polished transcripts to promote all listeners to consume via the podcast’s own website (even on mobile devices), not using any podcatcher app, at least until some podcatcher app offers matching quality for closed captions with an experience on par with the premium PowerPress player, as covered in detail in Podcast playback: immersive reading + italics on website-desktop & mobile. As of CapicúaFM episode 87, I am promoting consumption via the podcast website for the best user experience, even on mobile.
(Re-)Subscribe for upcoming articles, reviews, radio shows, books and seminars/webinars
Stand by for upcoming articles, reviews, books and courses by subscribing to my bulletins.
In English:
- Email bulletins, bulletins.AllanTepper.com
- In Telegram, t.me/TecnoTurBulletins
- Twitter (bilingual), AllanLTepper
En castellano:
- Boletines por correo electrónico, boletines.AllanTepper.com
- En Telegram, t.me/boletinesdeAllan
- Twitter (bilingüe), AllanLTepper
Most of my current books are at books.AllanTepper.com, and also visit AllanTepper.com and radio.AllanTepper.com.
FTC disclosure
Neither Apple or Blubrry has paid for this article. TecnoTur pays Blubrry for some services, including statistics and access to the premium PowerPress player. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.