ytbud Add to Chrome

How to show two subtitle languages on YouTube

Updated · tested in Chrome

Short answer

YouTube shows one caption track at a time. Turn on “Dual subtitles” in ytbud for YouTube, turn on YouTube’s captions, then choose “Second subtitles” in the player’s settings menu. The second language appears just above YouTube’s line, in sync.

Add to Chrome — it’s free
Dual subtitles, recorded on YouTube with ytbud (on the Tools page).

What YouTube offers

The CC button and Settings → Subtitles/CC pick one language, including auto-translated ones. Picking a second replaces the first.

With ytbud, step by step

  1. Add ytbud to Chrome and turn on Dual subtitles in Tools → Look.
  2. Play a video and turn on YouTube’s captions (CC) in the language you’re learning.
  3. Open the gear menu and choose Second subtitles. Pick the language you know.
  4. Your choice is kept for every video until you change it.

Good to know

Any language YouTube translates to
The menu lists the video’s own caption languages first, then every language YouTube can auto-translate into.
Read along in the transcript
Open the Transcript button to see the whole text, search it, and click any line to replay it.

Questions

Why do I need YouTube’s captions on?

ytbud reuses the player’s own caption request to fetch the second track, so captions must be on for it to know what to ask for.

Does it work on videos without subtitles?

It needs at least one caption track, uploaded or automatic, to translate from.