How to Translate Videos on Facebook and Reach a Wider Global Audience

Although you put a lot of effort into creating unique and engaging content for your Facebook audience, your reach may stall after some point. You may feel your reach isn’t growing and think there’s no way to grow.

But did you know that translating your videos into different languages can boost your Facebook page and improve your global reach? It helps tackle the challenge of language barriers and reach more people.

Besides audio translation, subtitles and captions in different languages also improve your content’s accessibility. Research indicates that 80% of viewers are more likely to complete a video when captions are included.

But how do you translate Facebook videos? That’s what this blog post is all about:

1. The built-in tools in Facebook and how to use them
2. External software solutions for Facebook video translations
3. Advanced AI solutions and how to use them for faster, more accurate translations

Let’s get started.

Translating Facebook Videos Using Built-In Features

Currently, Facebook does not provide the option to translate the content. It only allows for textual translations.

However, Mark Zuckerberg has announced they are working on a Meta AI feature to translate Facebook videos, Instagram reels, etc., on the platform itself. And Meta is currently testing this feature in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.

Here is what the AI will be able to do:

• Auto-dub the audio in the speaker's original voice
• Sync the speaker's lips to match the translated language

How to Enable Auto-translated Video Captions on Facebook

Only some videos on Facebook have automatically generated and translated captions in different languages. If the caption is available in multiple languages, you can choose the preferred caption.

Automatically generated translated captions are available in these languages:

1. Brazilian Portuguese
2. Arabic (Standard)
3. Vietnamese
4. English
5. Telugu
6. Urdu
7. Hindi
8. Tamil
9. Tagalog
10. Indonesian Bahasa
11. Spanish (Latin America)

By following the steps below, you can enable captions in your preferred language automatically.

Click on your Profile picture and access Settings & privacy.

Click Settings from the menu.

Now, click Accessibility from the left menu section.

From the Accessibility menu, click View against Video and motion.

On the next window, you can see an option, Always show captions.

Enable Always show captions by toggling the button to the right.

You can also set preferences for how captions appear on your videos, such as their color, background, opacity, text size, etc., using the Captions display option on the screen.

Click Edit, and make the changes you want.

You have plenty of options for both background colors and text colors. Pick a color of your choice. You can also edit the options for background opacity and text size.

All these editing options help create an engaging effect when watching videos and break language barriers for content creators in new markets.

How to Translate Subtitles on Facebook Videos

Facebook does not translate subtitles or captions for videos on its platform. What it does, however, is it lets users add subtitles to the videos in different languages, and viewers can pick the subtitles in their chosen language if they are available.

When you upload a video to Facebook, you have two options to generate captions for that video:

Allow Facebook to generate captions

Facebook can automatically generate captions in the language of the video. However, Facebook's ability to create accurate subtitles is not the best in the market. However, it will suffice for short videos, and you can edit the captions for better accuracy.

Add a .srt subtitle file with the captions

Here, you can generate subtitles in multiple languages if you prefer. You can then configure the master subtitle file with the language code for each language. This lets Facebook automatically detect the viewer's caption setting and display the subtitle with the corresponding code when playing the video.

Learn How to Translate a Video on an iPhone: Check Our Blog

How to Enable Captions When Watching Facebook Videos

Captions allow viewers to experience the video in their native language by reading the captions. However, most of the time, it may not be available for them because Facebook settings are set to Off  by default.

To enable this setting while watching videos on Facebook videos, Play the video you want to watch and hover over the video. You can see CC in the video's right, lower right corner.

Click CC to open the subtitle option. You can see whether the video's subtitle option is On/Off. It will also show the language in which the subtitle is available.

Click the available subtitle, in this case, English, to enable subtitles for the video. The subtitle will be available immediately on the video. Depending on your settings for the desired language, Facebook will serve you the right caption if the uploader has provided the caption in that language.

Remember that Facebook currently allows you to translate only captions and comments from posts, and you cannot translate audio on Facebook. You must use a robust, reliable AI video translator, like Murf AI, to do that effectively.

How to Translate a Video on Facebook Using Murf

Since you cannot directly translate the audio from a Facebook video on the platform, you need to do it with a third-party app like Murf AI. Translating videos using Murf for Facebook is pretty straightforward.

We are using the AI-powered Murf Dub platform to do it.

Step #1: Launch Murf Dub and click Create Project.

Step #2: Name your project and click Next.

Step #3: Click Browse on Computer to upload the video. You can also drag and drop the file onto the platform.

Step #4: Click Automated Dubbing and Next.

Step #5: Choose the source language and destination language on the screen. You can also pick multiple languages if you prefer. Click Next.

Step #6: You will find an overview of the project, including the credits that will be used for the process. Make changes if you want, or click Start Dubbing.

Step #7:  Once the video is processed, click Preview.

Step #8: Make all the changes you want on the video by clicking Edit Dub. It allows you to remove errors and update the script. After making any changes, click Render to add the changes to the video. Once the edits are done, click Export Dub.

Step #9: Upon clicking Export Dub, you will get the option to choose the format and subtitles. Enable the ones you want and click Export.

Step #10: Now click the Download button to get the video exported to your computer.

Best Practices for Translating Facebook Videos

Although translating Facebook videos helps reach newer audiences worldwide, many businesses fail to translate videos effectively.

Using a few best practices, like using simple language, reviewing the translation, etc., can improve the quality of translations.

Use simple language

Using simple language commonly used by your audience can make translations better. It will help you break language barriers, as well. Check the audience's demographics, education level, and language peculiarities before translating your videos to make the translations suitable for the audience. Using a powerful tool like Murf AI that allows you to edit the transcript file before translating it can also help.

Review your translated videos

Before you upload your translated videos, review the audio file and check its accuracy. Inaccurate translations may cause the target audience to lose interest. The revision will also ensure your translated videos feel natural and crafted in the target language. It will make your videos resonate well with your audiences.

Make your original videos easily translatable

When you produce content to reach a global audience, translation should be in your mind right from the first stage of content creation. This will ensure accurate and easy translations of your videos into multiple languages, as you wish.

Use an AI-powered tool like Murf

While you can dub your Facebook videos into multiple languages, it takes time, effort, and money. You may not have all the resources to do this as a content creator. This is where AI translation tools like Murf AI can help.

For example, Murf AI allows you to translate videos into any language you prefer. It also allows you to adjust the tone, variability, and style of the audio. You can also pick different voices from a library of unique voices with Murf AI.

Using these tools makes translations faster and more accurate while giving you granular control over how your final translated videos sound.

Ensure Accurate Translation on Facebook with Murf AI

Content creators are constantly trying to expand their reach to more audiences by translating their content into different languages. AI tools, like Murf Dub, have made this easier, and the AI dubbing industry is poised to reach US $1.03 billion by 2025. AI translation will surely be the go-to strategy for most content creators to translate their Facebook videos and reach different audiences.

While Facebook lets you add subtitles and captions in different languages to your original videos, it is still not enough to grow your Facebook page as you expect. This is where Murf Dub can help you.

The AI-powered translation platform from Murf allows you to:

1. Clone your voice from the source video without training and losing the quality or accuracy.
2. Support translations into Russian, Spanish, Hindi, French, Chinese, etc.
3. Custom tools to adjust the pronunciation precisely as you want for your videos.
4. Download subtitles in multiple languages along with the translated video.
5. Translate TikTok videos and videos for other social media quickly.

Murf Dub allows you to speed up your content creation process by saving you the time needed to transcribe audio from your video content manually.

Sign up for a free trial of Murf Dub to see the platform in action.