Happy Scribe Review: A Must-Have for Video and Audio Content Creators

Do you want to add subtitles to your videos quickly? While you’re at it, would you also like to create a transcript?

There are a lot of benefits of using subtitles and transcripts in your videos. But it can be a trek to write pages and pages of your transcript and overlay it in on your videos with a video editor. But there’s one tool that can help you automate this process and save time.

That’s Happy Scribe!

What is Happy Scribe?

Happy Scribe is an automatic transcription and subtitle generator based in Dublin, Ireland. You upload your video or audio to the software, and it’ll automatically generate the transcription and subtitle.

You can then view the transcription on their text editor and the subtitles in their video editor along with the video and make any changes if you would like to. It saves a lot of time.

Who Is Happy Scribe Best Suited For?

Happy Scribe is best suited for video editors, researchers, podcasters, journalists, and students. Even businesses and solopreneurs that implement video marketing tactics like webinars and online courses can use it.

Happy Scribe Pricing Plans

Happy Scribe’s pricing plan is straightforward as it’s pay as you go. There are no monthly or annual fees. You just pay them depending on the length of your videos.

It’s €12 per hour for the first 1 to 24 hours, €11 per hour for 25 to 49 hours, and €9.6 per hour for 50 to 74 hours. For 75 hours or more, you need custom pricing. The credits never expire. You can use them whenever you want.

Students get a 25% discount.

You can sign up for a free trial to test them before you buy credits.

If you want a plan where credits refresh every month, you should check out AppSumo’s Black Friday deal. You can get it for a one-time payment of just $69 for life.

Core Features Reviewed

Happy Scribe has a lot of useful features. Here are some of the top features you will like.

1. Lightning-Fast Transcribing and Subtitling

It can quickly analyze your videos or audios and convert the speech to text. You simply choose whether you want subtitles or a transcript. Then upload the file or copy and paste the URL if it is already on a video platform.

You can also import files from Google Drive, Dropbox, Vimeo, YouTube, and Wista.

Uploading can take time depending on how big your file is, but the subtitling and transcription are quick once you hit submit. I uploaded a five-minute video, and it transcribed it in less than four minutes.

2. Available in 119+ Languages

You can choose 119+ languages while submitting the video for transcribing.

These include widely spoken languages and those that aren’t. You can also choose dialects. For example, for English, you have dialects such as the United Kingdom, United States, India, and Ghana. For French, you can choose France, Canada, or Belgium. These ensure that the transcriptions are accurate.

3. Interactive Editor

The transcriptions and subtitles appear on an interactive editor where you can make changes. For transcriptions, it is a simple editor. You can view the text, make changes, and download it.

The editor for subtitles is more sophisticated.

You have the subtitles editor to the left, where you can change text and adjust the time. On the right, you can adjust the playback feed and format how subtitles appear on the video.

At the bottom, you have a timeline where you can make more changes.

4. Punctuation Included

Happy Scribe analyzes the audio and includes basic and advanced punctuations in the subtitles and transcriptions. You can use it as it is or make modifications.

5. Translate Text

The editor has a translate option where you can translate both subtitles and transcriptions.

The languages available for translation are Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and Polish.

It is a handy tool for reaching a global audience with different language preferences.

6. Speaker Identification

If your videos have multiple speakers, Happy Scribe will identify it and automatically start a new paragraph.

You can later use the editor and add speaker names.

7. Proofreading Helper

The editor has a proofreading helper that highlights areas it had trouble translating accurately.

You can use this to quickly correct mistakes.

8. Hire a Transcription Expert

If you don’t want to proofread the text, you can use their professional transcription service.

You can choose this when you start the transcription process or after. Here, a real proofreader will proofread the text within 24 hours. It costs €1.7 per minute. I think it’s a fair fee.

9. Sharing and Collaborating

You can share the transcript with anyone. You can also allow people to edit it. If you do this, anyone can edit it, even those without a Happy Scribe account.

Another way to share is by creating an embeddable script. It’s SEO friendly and useful for people who want to get their videos, podcasts, and other media to rank. It can save time as you don’t have to write thousands of words to rank the page. You can simply embed this and write some keywords around it.

10. Personalized Vocabulary

Happy Scribe has a personalized vocabulary called “My Vocabulary.”

Vocabulary will help Happy Scribe transcribe technical terms such as your company name, technical terms, or anything unique that the software would find hard to understand. You can add both single words and phrases.

11. Multiple Formats

HappScribe accepts multiple audio and video formats. These include both popular and less popular ones. Some of them are MP3, MPEG, AAC, MK3D, and OGA.

You can also download transcriptions or subtitles in various file formats. If you prefer, you can even download the entire video files with the subtitles.

12. Customize and Burn Subtitles

The software offers a lot of options to customize subtitles. You can set limits such as the number of lines, characters per line, and the gap between subtitles.

You can also format the text.

You can change the font, color, font size, alignment, position, and more. Use these to ensure that the subtitles are viewable but don’t get in the way of watching the video.

13. Adjust Speed for Subtitles

You can adjust subtitle speed settings such as maximum characters per second, minimum subtitle duration, and maximum subtitle duration to make sure people have sufficient time to read.

Happy Scribe Integrations

Happy Scribe integrates with software to make it easy to import videos and edit them. Here are a few integrations.

• Vimeo
• YouTube
• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Wistia

You simply connect your account and import your videos.

Cons of Happy Scribe

Happy Scribe has a lot of powerful pros, but there are a few cons.

Not Fully Accurate

The translation isn’t entirely accurate. It does make some mistakes. You will need to spend a little time fixing these errors. But this happens with every transcribing software. Everyone will have different accents and their unique way of pronouncing some words.

Happy Scribe makes it easy to rectify these mistakes with their proofreading helper. It highlights the text it suspects it didn’t translate correctly. Grammarly also works on its editor. It spots extra mistakes that Happy Scribe doesn’t. You can use it or another tool like it to fix errors, especially grammar mistakes. But be careful about what you fix as you don’t want to change so much that the subtitles/transcription don’t match the video or audio.

Vocabulary Doesn’t Always Work

“My vocabulary” doesn’t always work, and you might need to fix it manually. Like translation, I suspect that this has got more to do with the unique way that individuals pronounce words. An upgrade where the software uses speech recognition to identify the speaker, their voice, and pronunciation style will help.

No Subscription Plan

The pay as you go pricing system is a very flexible option. But the problem is that this can be expensive for podcasters and video creators who publish content every day or weekly. Subscription plans where you pay monthly or annually and can use it for a fixed number of hours would make it more affordable for intense users.

It would also be nice if subscribers can buy extra credits for a lower price (as on Sonix) after they run out of them.

If you prefer a plan where you can use Happy Scribe for a set number of hours every month, you might want to check out AppSumo’s Black Friday deal. For a one time payment starting from $69, you can get it for life.

How to Use Happy Scribe

Now that you understand some of Happy Scribe’s top features, I will show you how to use it. We’ll create a transcription together first and then some subtitles.

How to Create a Transcription

To create a transcription, click “Upload a new file.”

Happy Scribe will then ask you if you want to create a transcription or subtitles. Choose transcription.

After that, it will enquire about the quality of the audio. It is to make sure that the file is easy to transcribe. The clearer it is, the better Happy Scribe can transcribe it, and you’ll spend less time correcting errors. Choose Yes or No and click proceed.

You can tick “Don’t show this again” if you don’t want to see this again.

After that, you can upload the file from your device or import it from one of the services. You can even copy and paste the video URL. Uploading/importing can take some time, depending on the size.

While the video uploads, you can select the language spoken and whether you want automatic transcription or you would like a professional’s help.

You can also choose whether you want Happy Scribe to use words and phrases from “my vocabulary.” Click the “Transcribe” button after you upload the video or turn on auto-submit.

The dashboard will open up, and you can view the progress. You will see the “Done” message along with a tick mark when it finishes. Happy Scribe will also email you.

To view the transcription, simply click on the transcription on your dashboard. It will open up the transcript in the editor.

The text in red are the ones that Happy Scribe suspects didn’t get translated correctly. I recommend you to read through the whole thing and fix the errors, but pay special attention to the parts that are in red.

Also, add the names of the speaker(s) if you feel that’s relevant.

After you finish, click on share, and share the URL or the embed code. You can even download the transcribed audio file by clicking “Download.”

How to Create Subtitles

You follow the same steps initially for creating subtitles. The only difference is that you should choose “Subtitles” instead of “Transcription” before uploading.

After the subtitles are ready, you can click on them to go to the editor.

It appears different from the transcription editor.

On the left, you have the subtitle editor where you can change subtitles and add new ones.

On the right, you have the video where you can format how the subtitles appear on the video.

Under “Edit subtitle limits.”, you can adjust the maximum number of lines per subtitle, the maximum characters per line (CPL), and the minimum gap between subtitles.

Under “Format subtitles,” you can make aesthetic changes to the subtitles. You can change the font, colors, font size, alignment, position, etc.

At the bottom, there is the timeline.

You can drag and move the subtitles here to determine when they appear.

You can either download the subtitles or the entire video after you finish.

Did You Find This Happy Scribe Review useful?

Subtitles and transcriptions should be a part of your video marketing strategy. Subtitles make it easy for people to understand your video when they watch in mute. They also make it easy for viewers whose first language isn’t English ( the language the video is in) to follow along.

Transcripts, on the other hand, can improve the SEO performance and make it possible for people to understand the contents of the video without watching it.

Both can be written manually on a writing tool and added using a video editor (for subtitles). But that is a time-consuming process. Video creation and editing itself can take up a lot of time.

This is why you should use a tool like Happy Scribe to automate transcribing and subtitling. It is lightning fast and will save you hours every month. It’s also very affordable.

And for a limited time, you can get lifetime access to Happy Scribe at just $69 on AppSumo.