Check alt text before you schedule

Before you start

Upload or choose your images in the media library. Each file is stored once and reused wherever you attach it, so the description belongs to the file, not to each post.

Not every platform has a place for a description, so it helps to know which ones do before you rely on it.

Describe the image and schedule

1. In the media picker or the library, find the image and choose Describe on its tile. Write the description and save it. A described image shows Edit description instead.
2. Attach the image in the composer and select your channels.
3. Press schedule. If an image has no description, a prompt asks whether to go ahead.
4. Choose Add descriptions first to write them now, or Schedule anyway to continue as it is.

Which platforms carry a description

Where a platform declares a ceiling, NioConnect knows it. A description longer than the ceiling is left off that destination rather than cut short, so keep descriptions inside the limit that matters to you.

Platforms not listed either carry a description with no declared ceiling, or take no images at all. The page for each platform, such as Bluesky, shows its media rules.

Write alt text that helps

Say what the image shows, as you would to a friend who cannot see it. Include the detail that matters to the post. If there is text in the image, write that text out, because it would otherwise be invisible to a screen reader.

You can skip phrases such as "image of", since the reader already knows it is an image. Keep it short enough to hear comfortably. When a platform has a low ceiling, such as Pinterest, put the important part first.

The free alt text checker is a quick way to test a description before you save it.

If something goes wrong

Pictures that are purely decorative are a judgment call; if the image adds nothing to the post, a short description still costs you little and spares a screen reader user a puzzling silence.

A good test is to read your description aloud with the post text next to it. If the two together tell the story without the picture, the description is doing its job.

If a destination does not carry descriptions, the post still publishes; the image simply goes without one there. If a description is over a ceiling, it is omitted for that destination and the composer says so. Shorten it in the media library and the new text applies the next time you schedule.

Next steps

Try the habit on your next post. If you also write text for several channels, see Write one post for several channels.

Check your result

• Confirm every image has a description in the media library.
• Check descriptions against the shortest ceiling among your channels.
• Write out any text that appears inside the image.
• Answer the schedule prompt deliberately, not by habit.