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Product updates

New features, improvements, and fixes in CaptionBolt.

CaptionBolt began as a caption feature in GQV.ai. Read the story behind CaptionBolt. Dates below mark product updates, not blog posts. Older entries reflect the product at the time.

Better captions in more languages

  • Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and other Indian-language captions now export with their letters joined correctly, matching the preview.
  • The font you choose now draws your language when it includes those characters. If a font lacks them, a backup font fills in, and the Editor tells you.
  • Urdu and Arabic videos with automatic language detection now read right to left in every style.
  • Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Telugu and other languages no longer show empty boxes in the Editor preview.
  • The font menu now shows which fonts support your captions and marks the most compatible ones as Hot.
  • Adding fonts is easier: search by language or font name, see recommendations for your language, and add font files up to 15 MB.
  • Chinese, Japanese and Korean captions in extra-bold styles now export as bold as they look in the preview.
  • Each font in the font menu now appears in its own style, so you can compare them before choosing.

Magazine caption styles, Talking captions and light mode

  • The Captions panel has a new Magazine group of editorial styles. Each one shows a phrase as a designed page with one large main word, like a magazine cover or a pull quote. Magazine styles are available on every plan.
  • The first time you choose a Magazine style, AI plans the pages, picks each page’s main word and sets how strongly it stands out. Planning doesn’t use processing minutes. To change a main word, open Main word on each page in Text Editor, or choose Edit main words in Customize. The preview, ASS download and exported video match.
  • On newly uploaded videos, Magazine captions try to stay clear of the speaker’s face and head. When the head is clearly visible, styles marked Behind speaker occasionally place the main word behind it. You can turn this off with Text behind the speaker in Customize.
  • Five new Talking styles place short phrases around chest height for talking-head explainers: Talking Point, Talking Card, Talking Build, Talking Focus and Talking Spotlight. Each one shows your highlighted words in an accent color.
  • CaptionBolt now has a light mode. Choose Light, Dark or System under Color mode in the account menu, or in Account settings → General. The Editor follows your choice, and your video still plays on a dark background.
  • Cards in Recent projects on the Dashboard now have an actions menu. Open a draft in the Editor, edit a finished video again, download a finished MP4 or a caption layer, or remove a project without going to the Projects page.
  • You can now rename projects and transcripts. Click the name at the top of the Editor or a transcript, or choose Rename in the Dashboard, on the Projects and Transcripts pages, or next to a finished video’s name. Names can be up to 80 characters and keep their file extension. Files you export afterwards use the new name, and files you already exported keep the old one. Copies made with Edit again or Create copy are now named like “Interview (copy).mp4”, and copying a copy no longer adds a second “(copy)”.
  • The Headline Style tab now starts with five looks: Clean (the new default), Label, Accent, Outline and Banner. A look changes only the font, colors, outline, shadow and background, so the text, timing, icon and position stay as they are, and you can undo it or keep adjusting. Headlines also look more polished, with a soft shadow, a fade in and out, more evenly balanced lines and a larger default size for new Headlines.
  • Captions, Headlines and Covers set in Instrument Serif, Barlow Condensed or Bodoni Moda no longer render wider than planned. Words no longer crowd together, and large Headlines no longer get cut off at the sides of the frame.

Transparent caption layers and Cantonese captions

  • On Pro, Max and other plans with ASS subtitle export, you can now export a caption layer, a transparent ProRes 4444 .mov that contains only your captions, to place over your own video in an editing app. It matches your video’s resolution and the captions in your exported video, so it lines up without resizing. Choose Export caption layer next to Export video in the editor, or on a completed project. The layer appears in Recent projects as its own item, and your project stays as it is. Before you export, you’ll see the maximum file size. In 4K, a caption layer can cover up to about 7 minutes of video, and in 1440p up to about 15 minutes.
  • Video and transcript uploads now offer Cantonese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese instead of a single Chinese option. Choose one and the whole video stays in one script, including passages recovered by Deep scan. Cantonese captions use standard written Chinese with Hong Kong Traditional characters, as Hong Kong subtitles usually do, and Traditional Chinese uses Taiwan character variants. Auto-detect and existing projects are unchanged.
  • When you delete spoken words in Text Editor, the caption no longer stays on screen while those words are said. The words before the deletion disappear once they’re spoken, and the next words appear on time. This helps when a graphic in your video already shows the words you deleted. Deleting less than half a second of speech, such as an “um”, works as before. The preview, exported video and subtitle files match.
  • If your video starts with silence or music before anyone speaks, the first caption now appears much closer to the first spoken word. Before, it could sometimes show from the very start, for example from 0:00 when speech only begins at 0:07. This applies to new video and transcript uploads; existing projects keep their current caption timing.

Recover missed captions and preview styles in motion

  • Text Editor now includes Deep scan. If a video with songs, background music, or fast speech is missing a stretch of captions, or a word stays on screen too long, Deep scan analyzes those spots to recover the vocals and lyrics hidden under the music. Preview each passage, then add the ones you want in one step you can undo. Deep scan doesn’t deduct extra processing minutes and works on projects uploaded in the last 14 days. For a completed project, choose Edit again to make a copy first.
  • In the Captions panel, hover over a style card to watch its animation in a short loop, so you can compare styles without applying each one to your video. Keyboard focus plays the preview too, and cards stay static when reduced motion is turned on.

Public API, Webhooks, and AI agents via MCP

  • Max subscribers can now create an API key in Settings → Integrations. Use the Public API to upload videos, create caption projects, check progress, and export finished results from your own workflows.
  • Webhooks send signed project and export updates to your systems. In Integrations, you can manage endpoints, test deliveries, review recent attempts, and retry failed notifications.
  • Connect compatible AI agents and MCP clients to CaptionBolt through the hosted remote MCP server. With your API key, they can use the same project and export tools as the Public API.
  • The temporary read-only archive for removed Viral Clips, Reframe, and Dubbing results has ended. Current Projects and Transcripts remain available for 14 days.

Clearer resized videos, more reliable project copies

  • Resize now preserves more source detail when switching between portrait and landscape with a blurred or solid background. Existing zoom and position settings stay unchanged, and plan resolution limits still apply.
  • Copies of supported older projects now use current caption-style defaults, avoiding export failures caused by outdated settings.
  • Recoverable older drafts can open without being overwritten. If damaged optional content needs to be removed, you’re asked to confirm before editing.
  • Links to completed projects now open the saved video result. Make a copy for further edits without changing the original export.
  • Newly uploaded videos are exported from the original file, not the compressed playback preview. Progress updates during encoding are clearer.

A smoother path to a finished video

  • Newly processed videos now show an audio waveform in Clip, with a draggable playhead, trim handles, and removable ranges for cutting unwanted moments without a complex timeline.
  • Cuts automatically keep playback and captions aligned. Deleting a caption sentence in Text Editor hides only that text—the video and audio stay intact.
  • With Resize off, exports preserve the source resolution within your plan limits, with improved frame-rate handling for smoother playback.
  • Headline now has its own focused tool, and each project can save up to five Logo options while showing one at a time.
  • Preview recovery, AI editing tools, Transcript find and replace with Undo, uploads, billing, and account flows are now clearer and more reliable.

More creative control, smoother editing

  • Upload MP4, MOV, or WebM clips as B-Roll, with recoverable processing and previews that stay aligned with the final export.
  • Use your own fonts across Captions, Headline, Cover, and Video presets from a new account-wide font library.
  • Improved mobile and short-screen layouts, playback sync, upload progress, and recovery make projects easier to finish anywhere.

Faster, more consistent exports

  • Common video exports now finish faster with less rendering overhead.
  • Export scheduling now handles busy periods more smoothly, reducing avoidable queue waits.
  • Editor previews and exported videos now share the same caption timing, fonts, and styling rules, with more reliable progress, cancellation, and recovery.

A simpler, more reliable editing workflow

  • New AI Captions projects preserve the source aspect ratio by default, with Resize and Trim available when you need them.
  • AI Transcripts now has a dedicated review workspace with editing, search and replace, playback navigation, and plan-specific TXT, SRT, ASS, or VTT exports.
  • Caption editing, autosave, Undo, project progress, and failure recovery were refined to keep long edits and interrupted work safer.

A caption-first way to finish videos

  • AI Viral Clips, AI Reframe, and AI Dubbing were removed from the current SaaS and API product paths.
  • AI Captions remains the core workflow: upload, transcribe, style captions, optionally resize or trim, then export.
  • Successful legacy results remain available in read-only archive views.
  • AI Transcripts remains available for original-language review, search, replace, and local export; caption translation is not offered.

A clearer first run for AI captions

  • The dashboard made the upload action easier to find for a first project.
  • Quick-start guidance kept AI captions as the main path instead of presenting every tool at once.
  • Upload validation messages became shorter and easier to act on.

Free subtitle and video tools

  • A browser-based subtitle editor made it possible to open, edit, and export subtitle files without an account.
  • Subtitle converters added common workflows between SRT, VTT, ASS, and TXT.
  • Free crop and resize tools added local video editing in the browser.

More control over captions and reusable looks

  • Caption editing added merge and split controls, with timing changes carried into preview and export.
  • Reusable visual settings made it easier to apply a saved caption and brand look to another video.
  • Large uploads gained stronger retry handling and clearer failure feedback.

More reliable media uploads

  • Video and transcript uploads began showing clear progress.
  • Uploads could now retry automatically after temporary network or server issues, and could be cancelled when needed.
  • The same progress and recovery behavior covered media added as B-Roll.

Built to make captioned videos easier to finish

  • Early CaptionBolt development began in March 2026 with a simple upload, caption, and export path.
  • The focus was helping creators finish captioned videos without learning a complex editor.