At long last, Netflix now supports dialog-only subtitles without pesky closed captions describing speaker names and background sounds like “[phone buzzing].”
The way overdue addition means you can watch movies and TV shows with subtitles turned on for dialogue but no closed captioning. Previously, watching shows with subtitles also displayed speaker names and audio cues for sounds that play in the background, such as “[fireplace crackling]” or “[dramatic music swells].”
The Netflix blog says the new subtitle option will be available for all new Netflix originals in every language the streamer offers, in addition to closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH/CC), starting with the final season of “YOU.”
Netflix: Show standard subtitles without closed captions
To turn on dialogue-only subtitles without audio cues, start playing a recent show that supports this feature, such as the latest season of “YOU. Next, open the language picker in the video player and select “English” instead of “English CC.”
“So whether you’re watching in a noisy room, sneaking in an episode while someone’s sleeping or just trying to keep up with Joe’s internal spiral, you’ve now got more subtitle options to choose from,” the streamer said.
Don’t forget that Netflix lets you tweak how subtitles appear by changing size and font. You can also customize systemwide subtitles and captions on your Apple devices, but Netflix doesn’t honor these choices as it uses a custom video player.
I’m not surprised Netflix has introduced this option, but it’s surprising that it took so long. I’m not a native English speaker, so I often watch movies and TV shows with subtitles turned on. However, Netflix says that nearly half of all viewing hours on the service in the United States happen with subtitles or captions turned on.
That, too, is not shocking given voices in many movies and shows are muffled by background noise (Apple’s Enhance Dialogue feature addresses this), making it hard to clearly hear what the characters are saying; we all need subtitles now.