Subtitle tracks

A YouTube video can have subtitles in several languages and of different kinds. You choose the language and the kind before you start watching.

How to choose a track

1. Open a video. On the video page, tap the Subtitles row above Watch.
2. Tap a language. The list is grouped into Language of this video, Your languages and Other languages (tap Show All to see the rest).
3. In the selected language, pick the kind of track: Enhanced, Auto or Channel. Only the kinds this video has are shown.
4. Check the preview at the top — First line of this track shows how the text looks.
5. Close the screen and tap Watch.

If you pick a track in your native language instead of the one you learn, the video opens in reverse modes. See Reverse modes.

Track kinds

• Enhanced — subtitles adapted for language learning: split into whole sentences, with punctuation added. Preparing takes a few seconds the first time.
• Auto — YouTube’s own speech recognition as it is: no punctuation, lines cut by time rather than by sentence.
• Channel — uploaded by the channel author. They may be written by a person or by a machine, so quality varies from excellent to very poor.

Tap the ⓘ button on the Subtitles screen to open About subtitles with a side-by-side example.

Report a problem

If the text has wrong words or the timing is off:

1. Open Subtitles and tap ⓘ.
2. Scroll down and tap Report a problem.
3. Describe what’s wrong and send.

Common questions

Which track should I choose?

Enhanced when it’s available — it reads like normal text. If a line in Enhanced looks wrong, compare with Auto or Channel.

The subtitles list doesn’t load

You’ll see “Subtitles unavailable”. Check your connection and open the video again. See Video won’t open.

Why doesn’t the video have a track in my language?

PlayLingo uses the subtitles that exist on YouTube. The translation under each line is added by PlayLingo regardless of the track. See Subtitles and translation.