What covers your video
On Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts the layout is similar: the account name, the post's description and the sound sit along the bottom, and a column of buttons (like, comment, share, more) runs down the right side. TikTok and Reels also show a few controls along the top.
The exact sizes change with the app version, the phone and the length of your description, so treat the numbers below as a margin of safety rather than a measurement.
The areas to keep clear
On a 1080 × 1920 frame:
| Area | Keep clear | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom | About the bottom 20% (≈ 380 px) | Name, description, sound and the progress bar |
| Right edge | About 12% of the width (≈ 130 px) | Like, comment, share and profile buttons |
| Top | About 8% (≈ 150 px) | Tabs, the camera and search buttons, the status bar |
| Left edge | About 5% (≈ 60 px) | Rounded screen corners and cropping on some phones |
One placement for all three apps: centre the captions horizontally, with their middle between 60% and 70% of the frame's height. That's below the face in most talking videos and above every platform's bottom text.
Placing captions in CAPWAV
CAPWAV's caption styles start in a readable position for vertical video, and you can move them: change the position and size in the editor, and the preview shows exactly what you'll export. Titles can go anywhere on the frame, and on the Pro plan behind the person.
Before exporting, scrub through the video and check the longest caption line: long words are the ones that run into the right-hand buttons. If one does, bring the caption size down a little or narrow the caption width; CAPWAV re-wraps the lines to fit.
Square and landscape videos
A 1:1 or 16:9 video posted to a vertical app is shown with bars or cropped. Captions near the edges of a landscape frame can end up off screen. Either keep captions near the middle, or turn the video into 9:16 first with Smart Reframe (Pro) and caption the vertical version.
Titles, hooks and other text
The same areas apply to everything you put on screen, not just captions: a title card, a hook at the top, a price, a call to action. Text at the very top competes with the app's tabs, and text along the bottom sits under your own description.
A layout that works on all three apps: a short hook or title in the upper third (below the top 8%), captions between 60% and 70% of the height, and nothing important below that. CAPWAV's titles can be placed anywhere on the frame, and on the Pro plan behind the person, so the speaker never covers them completely.
Test before you post
The only reliable check is the app itself. Upload the export as a draft or a private post, open it on your phone, and look at the first, the longest and the last caption. If any word touches a button or the description, move the captions up a little or make them smaller, and export again.
Do this once per caption style: when a style works on one video it will work on the next, because CAPWAV keeps the same position and size relative to the frame at every resolution.
A quick checklist
- Captions centred, with their middle at 60–70% of the height.
- Nothing important in the bottom fifth or near the right edge.
- No more than about three words per line, so lines stay narrow.
- High contrast: outline, shadow or a box behind the text.
- Watch the export on a phone, in the app, before posting.
More on looks that read well: the best caption styles for Reels and TikTok.