Difference Between Captions and Subtitles - devrath/MediaAlchemySuite GitHub Wiki

The terms captions and subtitles are often used interchangeably

Feature Captions Subtitles
Purpose Accessibility for the deaf or hard-of-hearing Translation for people who can hear but don’t understand the spoken language
Includes Spoken dialogue and non-dialogue sounds (e.g., [music], [laughter], [door creaks]) Only spoken dialogue
Language Typically in the same language as the audio Typically in a different language from the audio
Contextual Info Yes – includes speaker IDs, sound effects, etc. No – just spoken text
Audience Deaf, hard-of-hearing viewers Foreign-language speakers
File Types (Examples) .srt, .vtt (with sound descriptors) .srt, .vtt (dialogue only)
Role Flags in ExoPlayer / Media3 C.ROLE_FLAG_CAPTION C.ROLE_FLAG_SUBTITLE

🧠 In Simple Terms:

  • Captions = Full audio transcription.

  • Subtitles = Translation of speech.

🛠️ In Android Media3 Context

When selecting text tracks via TrackSelectionParameters, you can choose based on role:

.setPreferredTextRoleFlags(C.ROLE_FLAG_CAPTION or C.ROLE_FLAG_SUBTITLE)

Use:

  • C.ROLE_FLAG_CAPTION if targeting accessibility.

  • C.ROLE_FLAG_SUBTITLE if targeting translated dialogue.

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