How to add alt text to your social media images, network by network

Write one or two sentences about what the picture shows and why it is in the post. In SPREVA you write it once, on the picture in your library, and it goes with that picture to X, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Tumblr and the other networks that take it, whenever you post it. Pinterest and Lemmy have a field of their own in the post. Instagram, Facebook, Threads and TikTok do not receive it from SPREVA yet.

Good alt text is short, specific and written for the post it is in:

• Say what matters in the picture, in the order you would notice it.
• Keep it to one or two sentences: a long description tires the listener.
• If the picture contains words that matter, a price or a date, include them word for word.
• Leave out “image of” or “photo of”: the screen reader already says it is an image.
• Describe it for this post: the croissant in a post about croissants, the shop window in a post about opening hours.

“Croissant” is not alt text. “A golden croissant on a blue plate, cut open to show its layers” is.

1. 1

   Open the picture in your media library and write in Alt text. It saves as you type.

2. 2

   Or, in a post, press ALT on the picture: the same field, saved with the picture and used wherever you post it.

3. 3

   Stuck for words? Suggest alt text writes one from the picture, in your workspace's language, for 1 AI credit. It is added at once, so read it, and Undo if it misses.

4. 4

   Pictures with alt text carry an ALT badge in the library, so the ones still missing it stand out.

Alt text is not the description SPREVA writes about every upload. That description is for finding pictures in your library by what they show; alt text is what a screen reader reads, and you write it, or ask for it, separately. How the library describes a picture.

When you post a picture that has alt text, SPREVA sends it to every network that takes it, within that network's limit:

Mastodon, where image descriptions are part of the culture, is also the one network where SPREVA warns you before publishing a post whose pictures have none.

Instagram, Facebook, Threads and TikTok do not receive alt text from SPREVA yet. On Instagram and Facebook you can add it by editing the post in their app once it is out. Keep the sentence you wrote in the library: it is ready to paste.

An AI agent connected to SPREVA can fill in the gaps in your library for you:

Open the library, look for the pictures without an ALT badge, and give each a sentence before they go out. Every plan starts with a 7-day trial with 300 AI credits.