Today we’ll discuss how to use language features on Amazon Prime Video. If you’re under 20, it’s probably hard to imagine any video streaming service not having captioning and language options. But it’s true. It was only in 2014 that Netflix was forced to add them to all of their titles. Captions weren’t even developed until the 70s. But with so many streaming services and options, it isn’t as easy as pressing the captions button on the TV remote anymore. Every streamer has its own unique user interface, and they are not all created equal.
Amazon Prime is one of the largest streaming services in the world, second only to Netflix. With over 168 million subscribers, we estimate that around 58 million of them use captions (based on studies reporting that 35% of viewers use them). Captions make it easier for everyone to perceive and understand content. If the film or television program is not in your mother-tongue, captions can also make the program easier to follow.
Amazon has done a great job building up their accessibility features in this regard. The interface is easy to use, the menus are intuitive, and the language selections are abundant. Prime Video even provides a caption selection menu that gives the user the choice in caption size, color, and style. Pretty impressive.
For example, the first episode of Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings series comes with captions in over 50 languages and audio interpreted in 29 languages. Prime even gives viewers the option to turn on audio descriptions, which are used to provide more context for persons with visual disabilities.
The captions look great, too. So how do we use them?
Every title won’t have the options that newer content gets, and that may be because they could have been made before providing them was required in the studio’s contracts.
How to turn on language features on Amazon
The exact key combination may vary depending on your device and operating system or browser.
On a browser
- Hover over your screen, and the HUD will display
- Click the Subtitles or Audio (speech bubble) icon
- Select the desired language
Using a Firestick
- Click on the three horizontal lines button
- Move to the bottom right corner and select Subtitles or Audio
- Select the desired language
Using a mobile phone
- Click on the captions icon while the video is playing
- The list of available subtitles will show up
- Select the desired language
Drawback
There is no “auto-translate” feature available for Amazon subtitles. We have seen this neat little feature before on YouTube, which allows the captions to be automatically translated into other languages using Google translate.
Language features on Amazon final words
Amazon Prime Video is a great streaming service. Users can create profiles and playlists easily. And while the watchlist feature is limited, you can use our hack to create a playlist on Prime Video. It’s also really refreshing that Prime Video has made such an effort to make the experience so inclusive. Prime Video’s caption and audio functionality is how others should do it.