What is TikTok Translation & Why Use It? (w/ Key Features)

TikTok is one of the social media apps that has been making waves on the internet for some time now. 

Everyone—users, creators, and brands—have had and are still having a great time on the app.

As such, TikTok is always looking for different ways to improve its user experience so people can spend more time on the app. 

Well, guess what?

There’s a new tool on the block—the TikTok translation tool!

And we’re going to tell you all about it in this guide.

More specifically, you’ll learn about:

• What TikTok translation is
• Some of its key features
• Why it’s useful

…all so you can make the most of it as a user or business owner. 

Alright then, shall we begin?

What is TikTok Translation?

TikTok translation is one of TikTok’s latest features and helps break language barriers so users everywhere can enjoy entertaining content.

It basically translates captions and text overlays from one language to another so viewers from different cultures won’t miss out on any content. 

For instance, let’s say you’re a Japanese speaker. 

With the translation feature, you can just tap “See translation” at the bottom of the screen to see all the written content in Japanese.

Here’s an example of the translation feature in use so you can understand more clearly:

On the left side of the screenshot, you can see that the video is in English including the captions, subtitles, and text overlay.

When the See translation is tapped, on the right side you can see that everything except the TikTok handle is translated into Japanese. 

That’s helpful, right?

What this means is that people of different languages can create videos without losing members of their audience who might not speak their language. 

What else?

The new feature is a great way for TikTok to expand its reach which will undoubtedly extend to creators and business owners who use the platform. 

It’s safe to say that the objective of TikTok translation is to make TikTok available to everyone. 

That way, creators and brands will have more people engaging with their TikTok videos.

Why was this feature launched?

Here goes:

According to statistics, there are over 1 billion monthly active users on TikTok. 

Of that population, over 300 million of them are from the Asian-Pacific region, excluding China and India, which means there’s a high chance that not many of these people can speak English.

By introducing the translation feature, TikTok ensures content is more accessible to those users. 

Here’s what TikTok said about the new update: “TikTok continues to be committed to investing in product updates that celebrate our diverse community and make everyone feel welcomed, included and entertained.”

In the past, it was only creators that could enable captions for their videos. Then it became automatic.

And now with this new update, viewers can turn it on with translation, making it the cherry on the cake. 

What’s more, this rollout also supports the photosensitivity feature, text-to-speech (for visually challenged users), and text stickers (we’ll talk more about these later on).

Essentially, you can now be confident that when your video hits the For You Page (FYP) and possibly goes global, your brand’s message will be well understood. 

If that’s not cool, tell us what is. 😎

Now, there’s something you should know about this update and that’s there are only a handful of languages supported this time round. 

The initial round includes:

• English
• German
• Portuguese
• Italian
• Indonesian 
• Korean
• Spanish
• Mandarin
• Turkish

We hope TikTok will introduce other languages in batches so more people can benefit from this feature.

If you’ve not seen this update on your app and your region falls within the list above, you might want to update the TikTok app, be patient, and if nothing appears, contact their support team.

Another thing to note, according to TikTok, is that the feature is still in the early stages and only available on certain videos.

TikTok Translation Key Features

We’re now going to show you the key features of this new tool.

We’re also going to explain how it works so you can leverage it for your business.

Let’s begin!

Feature #1: Auto-generated video captions

This feature allows users to switch on closed captions for videos they’re watching to make them more accessible. 

As we were saying earlier on, viewers used to be dependent on creators to add captions to their video content. 

But with this new update, viewers can do this by themselves. 

Captions in this context are a lot like subtitles and help users understand the audio in a video, especially hard-of-hearing viewers.

The auto-generated caption can be found just above a user’s handle on the FYP. Once you tap it, words will appear on the screen.

The screenshot below is an example of this feature in use.

On the left side of the image, you can see an image-like icon—that’s like the auto-generated caption toggle. 

When tapped, captions are shown towards the bottom left and if you want to toggle it off, you can tap the A icon.

This feature is especially useful for how-to videos so viewers can follow you step-by-step as it provides more context to the video.

Feature #2: Captions & description translation

The second feature is similar to the previous one. 

What’s different?

Since viewers can automatically transcribe video speech so they can read it instead, TikTok decided to add another feature that can translate captions and descriptions for users automatically. 

The feature is like Google Translate but for video translations on TikTok.

In the words of TikTok, “captions & description translation will help viewers enjoy videos beyond their original languages”.

You’d agree it kinda makes the phrase “the world is a global village” come alive.

Where can you find and activate this feature?

Well, you can decide to switch it on or off if you want, and here’s how to do that:

Go to your profile and click on the three lines at the top right corner.

On the menu that comes up, select Settings and privacy.

Next, select Language.

The next page you’ll see is this Language menu.

…and you can toggle on the Show auto translations to start seeing captions and descriptions in other languages. 

However, you do need to select which language you want your videos to be translated into.

Once that’s done, you’ll be able to translate captions and descriptions of videos that are in languages other than your primary language by clicking See translation.

Here’s an example of this feature:

The video above is in Japanese. 

When the user clicks See translation, the captions are translated into their preferred language.

The only things not translated are the username and hashtags. 

We’ve got one more feature before we move on.

Feature #3: Stickers translation

The last but not least feature is translations for text stickers. 

We are almost certain you thought it was those goofy Whatsapp stickers you use when chatting with your friends. 

But that’s far from it.

Stickers refer to text overlays—the text element that users see while watching a video like this:

Let’s get back on track.

With this feature, text stickers in videos, in addition to the captions, can be translated making life easy for non-native viewers. 

You wouldn’t have to worry about them understanding your trending videos. 

Remember how we showed you to switch on automatic translation?

Well, you can follow those steps to get this sticker translation feature too. 

Now, whether you’re a regular user or a brand, why do you need to take the TikTok translation tool seriously?

Why is TikTok Translation Useful for Brands and Creators?

There’s no doubt that TikTok is becoming increasingly popular and, naturally, that popularity includes audiences who speak other languages that you’re not familiar with. 

As a creator or business owner, the success of your brand depends on your ability to share important brand information with everyone regardless of their native language. 

That’s what the TikTok translation tool seeks to do.

Here are more reasons why it’s important:

1. Access to new markets

TikTok translation helps you to break into new markets where language would have otherwise been a barrier.

You’ll find it much easier to communicate with your new audience in a language they’re more familiar with. 

As a result, they will be more inclined to take action and engage with your videos when they see them which will ultimately lead to fresh converting leads.

What else?

With the new audience now being able to interact better, this will give you the opportunity to learn about what kind of videos they enjoy watching. 

You can then leverage that knowledge to create similar content so you can reach more people in that demographic.

2. Increase in conversion sales

Every business owner wants more impressions, followers, engagements, and of course, sales.

Well, did you know that when captions are added to your video impressions increase by over 55%?

Now with the introduction of the translation tool, it means more people from various demographics will get to see and understand the translated video. 

That means there’s a good chance of them being convinced to buy your product. 

And that chance increases if they share it with their friends and family. 

So translating the content into multiple languages creates an immersive experience for viewers and, as such, can boost your sales.   

3. Improves your ranking

Another reason why TikTok translation is important is that it kinda helps optimize your content so it ranks higher on search engines. 

How?

Well, translation gives it a wider reach so, as more people engage with the content, it becomes popular.

When that popularity increases, search engines will select the video so it ranks higher on the search engine results page (SERP).

This equally opens up your brand to more traffic from search engines and we believe you know what that means for your business. 

It can lead to more conversions and might perform better if you embed the video in your website. 

4. Makes the most of TikTok ads

When running ads on TikTok, one of the steps involved is to set an audience you want to target based on their interests, location, gender, age group, device, languages, and more. 

In the past, you could probably only select a number of targeting dimensions with just one location (the United States for example). 

With the translation tool, you can now select multiple languages and locations when targeting an audience for your ad.

The reason is simple: there’s no language barrier anymore, at least for some languages.

What this means is that you can run ads beyond your original language.

5. Goes viral in multiple regions

One of the things people love about TikTok is how easy it is for them to go viral. 

Well with this new update, we can say it’s become much easier to get your videos to trend.

People from different countries speaking different languages will be able to access your content. 

And as more of them engage with it, there’s the possibility that it will go viral.

Alright, it’s time for us to wrap this up!

Now Over to You

The TikTok translation tool will help you stand out from your competitors by making your content available to everyone. 

But for this tool to be effective, you need to ensure the content you put out is eye-catching and engaging. 

Wondering how to do that?

You’re in the right place—feel free to visit our blog as we’ve got several TikTok-related resources to help you out. 

And if you need more help, you can always reach out to us at any time.

See you soon! 👋🏽