External Media & Video Uploads

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If you haven’t, welcome. 👋🏻😃
I try to keep the place tidy… Ignore the coffee cup on the table. 🫣

So, you want to know about Bluesky’s media capabilities.

Or you’ve asked someone how to upload or whether you can upload videos.

I have the answer, like some kind of magically knowledge genie.

I’m not a genie though… And coffees help…

Buy Mike Jay a coffee through his Amicite account on Ko-Fi.

Now let’s talk media on Bluesky!

As always, there’s a contents menu… It’s somewhere around here… with quick links to specific sections on this article, which will take you straight to that point.

You can even right click on the links and Copy link address and when you share them, it’ll take those clicking on it… directly to that section.

I also added a Google Translate function to the site. If you need to view the page in any other language, you can now do so. I hope it’s helpful.

Let’s continue. Shall we?

Answers

You're going to like this

Before 11th of September 2024

Bluesky, didn’t have video upload capabilities.
Bluesky did provide a statement in their own blog, that they are working on video uploads of 60 seconds for users but hadn’t given a timescale for when this was to be completed.
There was some excitement as they seemingly started progressing with this function though.
And there’s this comment from Samuel, one of the dev team at Bluesky.

Soon!
— Samuel 🦋 (@samuel.bsky.team) Aug 25, 2024 at 9:49

After 11th of September 2024

You can now upload short 60 second videos directly to Bluesky!

It was an exciting moment when the dev team rolled out the update to batches of users at a time, so they could monitor the resource usage on the servers.

Bluesky now has video! Update your app to version 1.91 or refresh on desktop!We’ve begun gradually rolling out the ability to post video. Thanks for your patience! Estamos gradualmente implementando a capacidade de postar vídeos. Obrigado pela sua paciência!

[image or embed]
— Bluesky (@bsky.app) September 11, 2024 at 6:11 PM

External Media

Playing videos from youtube and more on bluesky

External media information

So now… You can upload a small video or use external media links (videos, music and GIFs) through a small list of services Bluesky have allowed, in players within Bluesky.
And I probably won’t need to post a lot of images to show you how this works.

The services that you can post links from that can turn into players when using Bluesky are:

Videos:
– Youtube and Youtube Shorts
– Vimeo
– Twitch
Music:
– Spotify
– Apple Music
– Soundcloud
GIFs:
– GIPHY
Photos:
– Flickr

Not bad to be honest. Right?

If you ever want to change which services you want to allow external media for on your devices (after following the steps below), open up your sidebar, press Settings, scroll to Content and Media and then press External Media.

Turn the toggle off if you want to stop using them.

Be aware that toggling any off and pressing play again on the player of the disabled service, will mean you will be asked the question whether you want to enable external media again.

External media links

Step 1: Find and post a video link

Let’s start, by finding a video link someone has shared or post a Youtube link, if you’re posting a link I should mention that if you copy the link from the service and paste it, a link box with video preview will appear.

If you share the link to the Bluesky post composer, from the service, you might want to make sure the blinking line is at the end of the link. Then press enter on your keyboard. Not just once but possibly twice, to turn the link blue within the composer screen to create a link box.

My advice is to copy the link and paste it into the post/reply composer.

If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll see the link box appear in the composer.

If it has, you can return the characters used in the link by deleting the link…

Wait… What?

Yes, the URL box will remain there even after posting if you delete the link after it has been displayed. 🤪

Step 2: Enabling All External Media

Now press the ▶️ Play icon on the video image on the link box.

If this is your first time doing this…

You’ll be asked if you want to accept Enable external media or the “service only” for the link you clicked.

If you accept all external media, you won’t be asked this question again.

If you choose to Allow for the media service your playing the video/music for, you will be asked the question again when you click play on any other services shared link.

Step 3: Now press play again

Now press the ▶️ Play icon on the video image link box again… every time you want to watch a video or listen to music that you or others have shared. It’ll now load the media player.

The box will change to show the services video or audio player and present the options to play and pause as required.

After a set time the player controls may hide themselves.
This is normal behaviour. Just tap the playing video to show the controls again.

Uploading Your own videos

Finally!

Video specifics

Okay… Here is the teaser for Ain't No Weekender. #AmiciteMusic

[image or embed]
— Mike Jay (@layeredstrange.uk) September 22, 2024 at 2:35 PM

So…

If you can’t tell, video uploads are now possible on Bluesky!
YAY!!!

Videos can be up to 60 seconds long.
One Video per Post.
Supports .mp4, .mpeg, .webm, and .mov video files.
Videos will autoplay. However, this can be disabled.
You can attach subtitles to your video.
As it currently stands at the time of tying, you can upload 25 videos, every day.

For more information, see the
Share video on Bluesky! article on the Bluesky Blog

Uploading videos

Start a New Post.

At the bottom of the post composer screen (as shown in the screenshot), click on the movie roll icon. I’ve put a red box around it so you can easily find it.

Find and select the video you want to upload, remembering that it can’t be any longer than 60 seconds.

Video processing

Once the video has been selected, Bluesky’s chosen services will process the video and check the video for illegal content such as CSAM, through Hive AI and Thorn.

This processing will be visible where all the icons were previously, in the bottom left corner of the post composer screen. I’ve put a red box around the area where the processing occurs.

During this process, you can continue to type up your post and press the post button but it won’t be posted until the processing text disappears and the icons reappear.

Caption & ALT Text

Just like photos and images, you can add an ALT Text to the video.
However, videos have an extra function, you can add subtitles. Also known as captions.

To do this click or tap on Captions & alt text.

ALT Text

I’m sure you have it within your ability to describe something… Even if you have never been great at describing the route a person needs to take when accosting you for directions.

This option is optional… I hate that sentence. 🤣

It’s not that difficult to do though. Putting a description in this box (with a big red box around it in the screenshot) for your video will give those with screen readers and other accessibility tool a chance to understand what is going on.

Once you’ve entered one, press the Done button.

Please note: At the time of typing this, there is no visual indicator of an ALT text description on the video. I have seen the Bluesky dev team discussing how they can implement it though.

Captions are subtitles

Subtitles also known as captions are common across a lot of video hosting platforms.

It seems as if Bluesky has also included this option but it requires you to have or make a .vtt file.

I’m personally clueless about the .vtt file format, however, it is possible to make your own .vtt files. You can read about this on the:
Create closed captions for a video on the Microsoft Support website.

Once you’ve made a .vtt file, press the Select subtitle file (.vtt) button.

Find and select your subtitle file.

Once done press the Done button.

Don't forget your interaction settings

I have previously written about this and you may want to check it out on the
Bluesky For EXiters – Menu Options Everywhere – Edit Interaction Settings article.

Outro

Closing the red curtain

Would you look at that.

That’s the end of this massive article update. If you found it useful…

You can buy me a coffee.
You’re not under any obligation to. 🤪

Thanks for reading. Keep an eye open for more of these articles… They might be useful.

Amicite

External Media & Video Uploads

Sight and sound amplified. 😎👍🏻