In this article
The text under a photo is not a lesser kind of message. Captions take every style the message box takes — bold, monospace, spoilers, links with words of your own — and they can be rewritten after the photo has been sent.
There is also a detail that saves a retype every time: text already in the message box moves into the caption when you attach the picture, formatting and all.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Format a caption the same way you format a message.
- check_circle Keep a draft you already typed when you decide to attach media.
- check_circle Write one caption for a whole album, and know where it lands.
- check_circle Read a channel's caption links with the right amount of suspicion.
Selecting caption text brings up the same formatting menu as anywhere else — there is no separate caption editor.
text_fields The caption is just a message that lives under a picture
Everything that works in the message box works here. Select a phrase and the menu appears; the typed markers convert as you write; the keyboard shortcuts do the same thing on a desktop. Nothing about captions is special except where the text ends up.
Two limits worth knowing. A caption holds a bit over a thousand characters, roughly double that with Premium — longer than anyone should write under a photo, but short enough to notice if you are pasting something. And a caption is attached to one media message, so an album gets one caption for the whole group rather than one per picture.
Four things captions do that messages do not
The formatting is the same. The behaviour around it is not.
autorenew Type first, attach second
image An album has one caption
visibility_off Hiding part of a caption, or the whole picture
link The link under a channel post
Two habits: check the caption field before sending, and check the address before tapping.
settings Writing one
- Attach the media Any draft already in the message box comes with it.
- Write in the caption field Under the preview. Same box, same behaviour as the message bar.
- Format by selecting Select a phrase, choose the style. Typed markers and desktop shortcuts work here too.
- Put the point in the first line Long captions are collapsed with a "show more", so anything past the first line or two is optional reading.
- Edit it later if you need to Hold the message, Edit, and the caption is editable without touching the media.
This page is formatting where it sits under media. The curriculum step is the format itself: every style available, how the markup is stored separately from the text, and what survives when a message is forwarded, quoted or copied elsewhere.
At a glance
- 1Format captions
Captions accept the same formatting as messages.
- 2Drafts move
Text you typed becomes the caption when you attach media.
- 3One per album
An album has one caption; check where it lands.
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