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Sound

Narration, a video's own sound, captions, and what readers hear.

A story starts silent. Readers choose to listen with the Sound control, and nothing plays until they do. Sound adds no length to a story and never stops anyone scrolling. A Soundtrack is a kind of beat; narration and video sound are set on the beat they belong to.

Narration

Narration is one recording on a beat in the flow, played once as the reader arrives. Open the beat's ⋯ menu, choose Add narration, then pick an audio file from your library or upload an MP3, M4A or WAV. Uploading asks you to confirm that you have permission to use the audio.

The beat's Content tab then shows the recording, its Volume and a Transcript. A transcript is the words that stand in for the recording, so a reader who can't hear it gets the same story. Use the beat's own words with Use this beat's text if they say what the recording says, or write one. A narration with no transcript saves, but the story can't be published until it has one.

Only a beat in the flow can have narration. A Page, Map, Backdrop, Overlay or Soundtrack runs across other beats and can't.

Video sound

A video's own sound is off until you turn on Play video sound on the beat that holds it. There is one switch for each video, so using the same video elsewhere changes nothing there. A video with no sound says This video has no sound.

A video uploaded before sound was supported has its sound made from the original the first time you turn it on. The row says Preparing sound… and finishes by itself. If it can't, it says why, and you can Try again or Replace video. The video keeps working without sound meanwhile.

Narration comes first: while a narration plays, the video's sound waits.

A video that plays with the scroll has no sound. Its Play video sound row says so, and keeps what you set for when you choose On its own again.

Captions

A video with sound needs captions: a WebVTT file with the words and meaningful sounds, timed to the video. Under Play video sound, choose Add captions. Replace captions and Remove captions put a mistake right, and Preview captions lists what readers will see.

If the sound carries nothing a reader would miss, such as quiet ambience, turn on No meaningful sound instead. These captions are separate from the Caption shown under a photo. Missing captions save, but block publishing.

What readers hear

The reader bar has a Sound control. Readers switch Sound on, replay the current narration, or read its text. Turning sound on partway through a beat plays only that beat's narration, and sound pauses while the page is hidden.

One soundtrack plays at a time. Two soundtracks can touch where one ends and the next begins, but can't overlap. The editor's Preview plays nothing until you press Sound there, and a preview link behaves the same way.