How to search YouTube video transcripts

Finding a line inside one video is built into YouTube. Finding which of the hundred videos you saved said it is not. Here’s how to do both.

Coming to iOS

Updated

golden hour

  • Oregon Coast in 3 days: Cannon Beach to Haystack Rock

    …time it for golden hour at low tide and Haystack Rock sits in its own reflection…

    Transcript · 41:12
  • Kyoto at 6am: Ninenzaka before the crowds

    6:04am · golden hour on Yasaka Pagoda · no crowds yet

    On-screen text
  • Three Lisbon viewpoints for golden hour, ranked

    Senhora do Monte wins at golden hour. Graça is a close second if you want a drink with it.

    Caption
  • Seceda ridge hike from Ortisei

    Start from the Furnes lift by four, and the ridge catches golden hour on the way down.

    Article

Inside one video

  1. Open the video and expand the description.
  2. Tap Show transcript. It appears on any video with captions.
  3. Tap a line to jump the video to that moment.

On a computer, the transcript opens in a side panel, and Cmd+F or Ctrl+F finds a word in it. On a phone there’s no find box, so you scroll. Auto-generated captions misspell names and jargon often enough that searching a few different spellings can help.

Across the videos you’ve saved

Watch Later and playlists hold your videos, but YouTube doesn’t search their transcripts together. For that, the transcripts need to live somewhere searchable.

If you bookmark on a computer, Raindrop.io’s Pro plan searches the full text of pages you save there, YouTube transcripts included. If you save from your phone, and your saves are a mix of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, that’s what MySwipe is for.

Share a video to MySwipe and it keeps the transcript, with timings. Search for what you remember, and the result shows the matching line with its timestamp, like Transcript · 41:12 in a three-day Oregon road trip video. Search works by meaning too, so “best time for photos at Cannon Beach” finds the part about golden hour at low tide.

What to expect

MySwipe is an iPhone app today, with a Chrome extension on the way. It reads the videos you share to it from now on. It doesn’t import your Watch Later list. The video itself is never copied. Tapping a save opens it on YouTube.

Questions

How do I see the transcript of a YouTube video?

Open the description and tap Show transcript. It appears on any video that has captions, and tapping a line jumps the video to that moment.

Can I search a YouTube transcript on my phone?

The YouTube app shows the transcript but has no find box for it, so you scroll. On a computer, open the transcript panel and use Cmd+F or Ctrl+F.

Can I search all my Watch Later videos at once?

Not in YouTube. You need somewhere that stores the transcripts of the videos you keep. MySwipe does this for videos you share to it from your iPhone, and a Chrome extension is coming.

Does MySwipe work with YouTube Shorts?

Yes. Shorts and regular videos are read the same way.

Does every video get a transcript?

No. Transcripts come from YouTube. Some videos have no captions, and some are too long for the transcript service. The save is still searchable on its title, description and summary.

Save it now. Ask it later.

Coming to iOS