Captions and hashtags

Adding and editing captions, length limits and hashtags.

How do I add a caption before a video is posted?#

At the Content details step, before you schedule the post. The description is editable there, up to 2200 characters. If the post is already scheduled, open it under My posts and press Edit caption: the caption can be changed for each platform until the post goes out.

The text burned into the video and its imagery are a different thing and cannot be changed once that video is generated. What appears in the videos made from now on, including the images and video behind them, is set in Post settings, under Videos.

Can I edit the caption?#

Yes, before you schedule a post and after. The caption is the text that goes out with the post. You write it at the Content details step, up to 2200 characters, before you schedule the post. A post that is already scheduled can still have its caption changed until it goes out: open it under My posts and press Edit caption. The steps are in "Can I change the caption of a post that is already scheduled?".

What cannot be changed is the video itself: the text burned into it, the image, the background and who appears on screen. Those are fixed once the video is generated, and nothing changes them afterwards.

That is about a video that already exists. What appears in the videos made from now on is set in Post settings, under Videos.

Can I change the caption of a post that is already scheduled?#

Yes, until the post goes out.

1. Open Videos in the sidebar and press My posts.
2. Press the scheduled post. Its window shows the date, the time and the platforms, with two buttons under them: Edit caption and Cancel posting.
3. Press Edit caption. There is a separate field for each platform the post is going to, with the account name above it and a character counter that runs to 2200, so the caption can differ from one platform to another.
4. Change the text and press Save. Cancel closes the window without changing anything.

Under the fields the window shows the hashtags from your Post settings, and the Hashtags settings link next to them is where you change those.

Only the caption changes this way. The video or slideshow itself stays as it was generated, and the time of a scheduled post cannot be moved.

How long can my caption be?#

The limit is set by the platform, not by us, and it is different on each one.

1. Instagram: 2200 characters, up to 30 hashtags and 20 mentions. The same for a normal post, a carousel and Reels.
2. TikTok: 2200 characters for a video post published through the official API, which is how we publish. Slideshows go to TikTok as photo posts, which have their own limits under TikTok's rules: up to 90 characters for the title and 4000 for the description.
3. YouTube: the title is capped at 100 characters and the description at 5000 bytes. Bytes rather than characters matters if you write in a non-Latin alphabet, where each character weighs two bytes, so 5000 bytes is closer to 2500 characters.
4. Reddit: 300 characters for the title, 30000 for the body of a post.
5. X: 280 characters without an X Premium subscription, up to 25000 with one.

The description field in HeyCatch counts up to 2200 characters. If you are publishing the same text to more than one platform at once, go by the strictest limit among the ones you selected.

Can you add hashtags to my posts?#

Yes. Post settings has a Hashtags section where you list the hashtags that always go on your posts.

1. Open Videos in the sidebar and press the gear icon in the top right to open Post settings.
2. Expand Hashtags, the fifth section, under Tone & Voice.
3. Type a hashtag into the field under Always include and press Add Hashtag. The # is added for you. You can keep up to 10 hashtags, each up to 30 characters, and the counter next to Always include shows how many are set.
4. Press the cross on a hashtag to remove it.
5. Under Platforms, tick the platforms that should carry them: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook. Untick a platform to keep the hashtags off the posts that go there.

There is no separate save button in the section. You can still write extra hashtags by hand into the description at the Content details step before you schedule a post; that field takes up to 2200 characters. On a post that is already scheduled, Edit caption under My posts lets you change the text for each platform, and the same window shows the hashtags from this list with a Hashtags settings link.

The hashtags on your list go onto the cards already in your deck as well as new ones, and you do not need to press Regenerate videos for that. They show up in the caption at the Content details step, so you see them before a post goes out. HeyCatch adds no hashtags of its own: only the ones on your list.

There is also a short walkthrough, with no sound: https://www.loom.com/share/9bd81d478ab84fda8b356a55d7d99340