Embed a Shorts Item

To place a Shorts item on your website:

• Click “Preview & Embed”

1.0 | Preview Presets

To change the preview of your Shorts item:

• • Change the size of the browser window
  • Use one of the device templates buttons
  • Enter a custom size

2.0 | Display format

First, select the display format

• Fullscreen
  The Shorts item will fill the entire browser screen or iframe

• Shelf
  The Shorts item will be displayed in basic form. Clicking a clip in the shelf will open the fullscreen display. Use the settings in the Appearance section to change the settings with regards to container settings and thumbnail height.

• Player only
  The Shorts item will only display one player with the current item

3.0 | Embed type

After selecting the display format, select the embed type required for your CMS:

• • Javascript
  • Iframe
  • AMP
  • URL
  • JSON (for Native SDK use only)

Copy the embedcode and place it on your page to embed. Learn more about embedding your video content.

4.0 | Shorts iframe embed limitations

4.1 | Responsive sizing

An iframe cannot resize itself to match its content. The Shorts player will render at the fixed width and height specified on the iframe element and will not adapt to different screen sizes or containers. The JavaScript embed handles responsive sizing automatically.

4.2 | Shelf display format

When using the Shelf display format, clicking a thumbnail opens the fullscreen Shorts experience. In an iframe embed, this experience is constrained to the fixed dimensions of the iframe rather than expanding to fill the screen. For a fully functional Shelf display, use the JavaScript embed.

4.3 | Autoplay

Modern browsers restrict autoplay inside cross-origin iframes. The iframe element must include the allow="autoplay" attribute for autoplay to work. Even with this attribute, some browsers may require the video to start muted. The JavaScript embed is not subject to these restrictions.

4.4 | Sharing and deep linking

Advanced sharing features (such as sharing a link to a specific clip) may be unavailable in cross-origin iframes because the player cannot determine the URL of the parent page. The “Copy link” and “Copy embed code” actions may also be restricted by the browser’s clipboard permissions for iframes.

4.5 | Viewer preferences

Player preferences such as volume level and subtitle selection may not persist between sessions. In cross-origin iframes, localStorage is often unavailable, so the player falls back to in-memory storage which is lost on page refresh.

4.6 | Ad viewability

Inside an iframe, the player cannot detect whether it is visible on the screen. This can negatively impact ad viewability metrics and, as a result, ad revenue.

4.7 | Recommendation: JavaScript embedding

We strongly recommend using the JavaScript embed for Shorts. It avoids all of the limitations listed above and provides the best viewer experience, including a fully functional Shelf display format, persistent viewer preferences and accurate ad viewability tracking.