If you've ever received a video from relatives without any captions and tried to figure out what they're saying against background noise — iOS 27 solves exactly this problem. Generated Subtitles will generate subtitles systematically for any video: in Photos, Messages, social networks and streaming services.
What exactly is changing
Most platforms learned long ago how to caption their own content. The problem remained with personal videos — clips from friends, family recordings, irregular streams. Generated Subtitles will allow iPhone to automatically create subtitles for any video: in the Photos app, Messages, social networks — systemically across the entire device.
Subtitles are generated directly on the device — without transmitting data to Apple's servers. The user will be able to customize them through the playback menu or in Settings.
"Subtitles for personal videos and content from friends and family, where subtitling was previously absent, will now be generated automatically"
Apple, accessibility features announcement, 2025
Who this is really for
Apple positions the feature as an accessibility tool — primarily for deaf and hard of hearing people. This could potentially be transformative for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. But in practice, the feature is useful for a much wider audience: watching videos without sound on public transport, incomprehensible speaker accent, loud background noise.
In addition to subtitles, iOS 27 will receive a Name Recognition feature — notifications for deaf people if someone pronounces their name. It will work in more than 50 languages. In contrast, Generated Subtitles will initially support only English — for the US and Canada.
Where the limits are
On-device processing is an argument for privacy, but also a technical limitation: the quality of recognition will depend on the hardware power of a specific iPhone model. Apple did not specify which devices will fully support the feature.
- Platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS
- Languages at launch: English only (US and Canada)
- Processing: exclusively on the device, without cloud
- Release: later in 2025 along with iOS 27
The question is not whether the feature will appear — it's already announced. The question is when Apple will add support for other languages: if Ukrainian appears in the first wave of expansion after English, this will become a real argument for those still hesitant between ecosystems.
