If you have a video you'd like to share with your subscribers, you can publish a video post or embed a video into a regular post on Substack.
Create a video post
With video posts, you can:
- Automatically generate transcripts
- Share audio from the video directly to your podcast RSS feed
- Offer exclusive content to paying subscribers and a free preview of paid videos to all viewers
- Easily share clips of your video in a note or on social media
1. Head to your Home or Posts tab and select “+New post”. From the menu, select “Video”.
2. In the draft video post, click “Record” to record a video using your mobile device or laptop or “Select file” to upload a video.
- If you record a video, your webcam will appear on the page, and you may be prompted to allow your internet browser to access your computer's camera and microphone. Click on the red circle to start recording, and click on the red circle again to stop recording.
- If you upload a video file, the upload will automatically begin, and the video’s settings dashboard will appear.
Tip: The accepted video types are 1080 p/2K or smaller, MP4, H.264, and AAC; the recommended maximum size is 20 GB.
3. While the video is processing, you can write text or edit your draft body.
- The video will appear at the top of the draft post and cannot be moved. Select from the following icons:
- Settings icon: The video’s settings page is where you can replace or delete the video, add a host or guest by name or email address, or generate a transcript.
- Lock icon: If you have payments enabled on your publication, you can edit and set a free preview of your video for free viewers.
- Image icon: Here, you can set a thumbnail for your post by uploading an image or selecting a still from the video.
- Trash icon: Select this icon to delete the video from your post.
- Once you’re ready to publish the video post, select “Continue”.
- If you have a Substack podcast setup, you’ll see the option to add a video to your podcast RSS feed and edit the episode notes. Toggling this on lets subscribers listen to the video audio on external podcast players.
7. After adjusting your publishing settings such as selecting which audience can view the video post, adding tags, or selecting the post preview image, select "Send to <audience> now".
Tip: On the Substack app, viewers can watch your video posts. The apps feature an inline player, allowing your viewers to read and watch at the same time, and keep their place when navigating back to a video they watched partway.
You can learn more here about using the video post feature such as selecting a free preview of paid videos and editing your video's transcript.
Embed a video into a post
1. From your Home or Posts page, select "+New Post" and click on "Post".
2. Click on the video camera icon in the editor toolbar and record or upload a video.
3. Select a still from the video to use as a thumbnail or upload your image.
4. The video will appear in the body of the draft and can be moved by dragging and dropping the video within the draft.
Tip: The video types accepted are 3GP, AAC, AVI, FLV, MP4, MOV, and MPEG-2; the recommended maximum size is 20 GB.
Learn more here on how to embed a video into a Substack post.