How to provide my own transcripts for Apple Podcasts

Apple Podcasts recently introduced support for episode transcripts, enhancing accessibility and listener engagement. Right now, these are only are available with iOS 17.4 or later for podcasts in English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish with back catalog episodes being added over time. Transcripts can be accessed in over 170 countries and regions.

How it works

Upon submitting your podcast to Apple Podcasts, transcripts for new episodes are automatically generated and made available exclusively on the Apple Podcasts platform. This automatic transcription service is a default setting, aimed at providing an effortless solution for podcasters to increase their show's accessibility and discoverability at Apple Podcasts.

Providing Custom Transcripts

However, for podcasters seeking to offer a more tailored listening experience, Apple Podcasts allows the submission of custom episode transcripts.

If you would like to provide your own transcripts, navigate to the Availability tab on your show's page within Apple Podcasts Connect. Adjust the transcript setting (shown below) to enable the option of providing your own transcripts.

We offer automatic AI-generated transcripts to all our users with paid plans. What sets our service apart from Apple's is the ability to curate and edit your transcripts. Unlike Apple, which doesn’t offer editing options, RSS.com gives you full control to refine and perfect your transcripts. This ensures higher quality transcripts that accurately represent your content, giving you more control over your podcast.

On top of that, our transcript service supports 13 languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish. While not all these languages may be displayed on Apple Podcasts, they're prominently featured on our public webpages. This is not only fantastic for SEO but also enhances the visibility of your podcast on Podcasting 2.0 compatible apps.

Considerations for Dynamic Content

RSS.com saves your manually added transcript as a TXT file by default. However, if your transcript is properly formatted as an SRT file, it will be saved as an SRT file. This is important because Apple only accepts SRT or VTT files. To ensure Apple can recognize your manually provided transcript, it must be a valid SRT formatted file.

It's important to note that for episodes featuring dynamically inserted audio (e.g., advertisements or personalized content), the displayed transcript will not reflect changes made after the initial transcription. This limitation underscores the importance of ensuring that your provided transcripts accurately reflect the final audio content of your episodes, especially if they include dynamically inserted segments.