The lights go down. The film starts. And the words you need aren’t on the screen.
Maybe the cinema doesn’t have captions. Maybe they’re in the wrong language. Maybe you’re at home, and the TV text is too small, too late, or missing altogether.
That’s what Subtitles Viewer is for. It puts the subtitles on your phone or tablet, timed with the movie — so you can follow along from the sofa or from a cinema seat.
And now, after a complete rebuild, version 4 is here — for iOS and Android.
Subtitles on your phone, timed with the film on the TV.
A clearer app, built for a dark room
Version 4 is a full redesign. Search, languages, your library, and the player have all been reworked so the app is simpler to find your way around — and easier to read when the lights are low.
The player stays dark on purpose. Large, high-contrast text sits on a black screen, so you can glance down without lighting up the row. Make the words bigger or smaller as you go. If you’re watching in the dark, switch to red text to keep the glow down.
Follow along, and stay in time:
- Swipe left or right to skip a line
- Volume up plays or pauses
- Volume down skips ahead
The first time you open the app, a short walkthrough shows you the path: pick your languages, search, play. You can open it again any time from Settings.
Search for the film. Watch in your language.
Type a movie or TV title, switch to Television for season and episode, and tap a result to see the poster before you play. Subtitles come from the huge volunteer library at OpenSubtitles.org, in more than twenty languages — English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and many more.
Open the Language tab and tick every language you want in search. You can pick more than one. We start with your device language, so you’re usually ready to go.
Hold your phone in the cinema — dark screen, clear words, no fuss.
Your own files, without the faff
Not every subtitle lives in a search result. Sometimes you already have the file — prepared yourself, sent over for a screening, or sitting in iCloud Drive.
Version 4 fixes bugs that used to get in the way of uploads, and the process is now much easier. On iPhone and iPad, you can bring a subtitle file in straight from the Files app. On Android, pick a file from your device the same way. It lands in Downloaded, and you can play it straight away.
Who it’s for
Subtitles Viewer has always been for people who need the words: the deaf and hard of hearing community, anyone watching in a language that isn’t their first, and anyone who just wants captions close enough to read.
Satisfied users have called it “awesome” and “a godsend”. Version 4 is the same idea, made clearer.
Get version 4
Update if you already have it, or download it for the first time:
→ Download on the App Store
→ Get it on Google Play
More about the app: Subtitles Viewer
We’d love to know how version 4 feels in the cinema and on the sofa. If something’s off, or something’s better, get in touch.