Shadowing Player
Chrome Web Store: coming soon

Existing videos

Already have YouTube videos?

Import the captions of a video you manage and turn them into a Shadowing Player lesson. Your video stays on YouTube; only the caption text and its timings become the lesson.

Being prepared

Caption import is not open to everyone yet: it uses a Google permission that Google reviews before an app may offer it widely. Until then you can upload a caption file (SRT, VTT) in Teacher Studio, which goes through exactly the same conversion.

How it works

  1. Your existing video

    Start from the lesson for that video in Teacher Studio, or make a new one from the video address.

  2. Import captions

    Google asks you to allow it. Use the Google account that manages the channel: captions can only be imported from videos that account can edit.

  3. Choose a track

    The video’s caption tracks are listed with their language and whether they are automatic or made by hand. Nothing is downloaded until you choose one.

  4. Review the automatic transcript Important

    Automatic captions may contain recognition or timing errors. Read the sentences and correct them before publishing.

  5. Optimize sentence boundaries

    Automatic captions come in small blocks. “Optimize for practice” joins neighbouring blocks into sentences of a few seconds. It never changes, adds or corrects a word, and you can switch back to the original blocks.

  6. Add a second language if you have one

    If the video also has captions in the other language, add that track: the two are joined sentence by sentence. Nothing is translated for you.

  7. Preview, then publish

    Save the draft, look at the preview, and publish the usual way, confirming that you have the rights to publish the lesson.

    Rights and copyright

What the Google permission is used for

  • What YouTube asks for

    YouTube has no permission that only reads captions. The one it requires is worded broadly (“manage your YouTube account”).

  • What Shadowing Player does with it

    Two things only: list the caption tracks of the video you selected, and download the track you choose.

  • What it does not do

    It does not edit or delete videos or comments, change visibility, or upload anything.

  • How long it lasts

    One import, 15 minutes at most. The authorization is revoked when you save or cancel, and no lasting connection to your YouTube account is kept.

Old videos and new videos

  1. A video you already published

    Caption import (or uploading the caption file) gets you a first lesson quickly. Expect to tidy it: the video was not recorded with practice in mind.

  2. A video you are about to make

    Follow the video guide: clean sentence boundaries and a lesson file written with the video give a much better lesson than captions recovered afterwards.

    Video guide

← All teacher guides