How to set your video to autoplay

Autoplay allows you to make your video play automatically whenever it loads on the page, without action from your viewer.

In a few simple steps, you can adjust your video's settings in Vidyard to enable autoplay. You can also combine autoplay with Mute by Default so that the video begins to play without sound.

Autoplay + Mute by Default is recommended given that most major devices and browsers automatically block or mute videos that autoplay with sound.

Enable the autoplay setting on a video

1. Select the video from your library that you want to set to autoplay
2. Select Settings > Player Design
3. Click on Edit
   

   Note: If the Edit button instead says Override that means the video inherits its settings from the folder-level defaults. Selecting Override allows you to exempt the video from the default settings and then make unique changes.

4. Open the Playback Behavior tab, then toggle Autoplay to ON

Keep in mind, most web browsers and mobile devices either block or mute videos that autoplay with sound by default. For the best possible experience across all devices and browsers, we recommend that you also enable Mute by Default.

Mute by Default makes the video play in a muted state with the option for the viewer to manually turn on sound. Combined with autoplay, this setting will allow your video to begin to play automatically in most cases.

Use query parameters to make your video autoplay

You can use a special set of URL arguments called "query parameters" to tell your video whether it should autoplay.

Query parameters are useful because they take precedence over any settings you've enabled on the video. This means you don't actually have to enable the autoplay setting in Vidyard or possibly override any folder-level defaults in order to make the video autoplay.

Query parameters can be added to either the video sharing link or the video embed code.

https://share.vidyard.com/watch/WtvstanH4qiq4Vfuz?autoplay=1&muted=1

<!-- The script tag should live in the head of your page if at all possible -->
<script type="text/javascript" async src="https://play.vidyard.com/embed/v4.js"></script>

<!-- Put this wherever you would like your player to appear -->
  <img
  style="width: 100%; margin: auto; display: block;"
  class="vidyard-player-embed"
  src="https://play.vidyard.com/WtvstanH4qiq4Vfuz.jpg"
  data-uuid="WtvstanH4qiq4Vfuz"
  data-v="4"
  data-type="inline"
  data-autoplay="1"
  />

Understanding browser restrictions on autoplay

Every browser has its own unique policies for how to handle media that autoplays. However, nowadays the majority of browsers (desktop and mobile) are designed to either block or mute media that autoplays with sound, by default.

Your viewers can adjust autoplay preferences within their browser settings, but overall browsers have opted to restrict autoplay as a rule and then offer settings that allow their users to choose how they consume media on the web.

If you want to enable autoplay, we recommend the following to allow for the best possible experience with your video across all devices and browsers:

1. Enable the Mute by Default setting alongside Autoplay. Unless viewers choose to block autoplay outright, this setting will allow your video to begin to play automatically in most cases.
   
2. Add captions to your video: Combined with Mute by Default, captions allow your viewers to immediately follow along with the video in the absence of any sound. A viewer can then subsequently click to enable audio, if they choose.