How do Vidyard's animated gif thumbnails work in Outlook?
Having trouble with your video's animated gif thumbnail in Outlook?
Vidyard allows you to select an animated thumbnail for your video, but depending on the version of Outlook, either you or your email recipients may experience 1 of 2 problems:
- the animated thumbnail itself does not play when shared in an email
- the animated thumbnail does not open the link to your video sharing page
My gif thumbnail does not play in Outlook
If an animated gif thumbnail does not play for you or your email recipients in Outlook, you'll want to check that:
- Your version of Outlook supports animated media like .gifs
- You have the animations setting enabled for Outlook
Does my version of Outlook support gifs?
Microsoft only supports animated gifs with their Office 365 versions of Outlook — either the web-based Outlook Live (outlook.live.com) or the Outlook desktop app (for Mac and Windows).
You can read more about Microsoft's support for graphics in Outlook messages.
| Outlook version | Platform | Support for animated gifs? |
| Outlook 2013-2019 | Desktop | No |
| Outlook for Office 365 | Desktop | Yes |
| Outlook Live | Web | Yes |
Do I have animations enabled in Outlook for Office 365?
If you are using Outlook for Office 365, but your animated thumbnails are still static, you may not have the setting for animations enabled in either Outlook or on Windows.
- Open your Outlook client.
- Select File > Options > Advanced from the Outlook menu.
- Check the Play animated GIFs box in the Display section.
- Select the Start menu from your Windows desktop.
- Search Show animations, and select the first result.
- Enable Show animations in Windows, under the Display section.
My animated thumbnail does not open the link to my video sharing page
Outlook's desktop apps (for Windows or Mac) have their own rules for how animated media (like gifs) play in emails.
When a gif is shared in an email, Outlook adds its own button to play and pause the animation. This behaviour applies to Vidyard's animated gif thumbnails as well.
Outside of the play button, the rest of the video thumbnail is still a clickable hyperlink that opens to your sharing page, but the play button will only play/pause the gif itself.
Here's a quick video to demonstrate how animated gifs behave in Outlook messages:
Is there a workaround for this problem?
- Use a static thumbnail instead: if you know many of your recipients use the Outlook desktop app, choosing a static thumbnail can reduce confusion and ensure that your recipient can click on any part of the image to open the link to your sharing page.
- Provide the viewer with instructions: include a line in your email that instructs the viewer to click outside of the play button or open the email in a web browser.