The player
How shoppers watch your videos: the fullscreen viewer, its controls and gestures, sound, subtitles, and the mini player.
The player opens when a shopper taps a clip in any widget, unless the widget plays videos inside their cards. Even then, images and product chips open it. It holds the clips the widget shows on that page, starting from the one tapped.
Fullscreen viewer
- On desktop: a tall 9:16 frame in the middle of the screen, up to 420 px wide, with the page dimmed behind it, or washed out white with the Light theme. Up and down arrows beside it move between clips.
- On phones: the player fills the screen. Shoppers swipe up for the next clip and down for the previous one.
A thin bar along the top shows how far through the video the shopper is. Images have no bar.
Controls
Along the top right, from left to right:
| Button | What it does | Shown |
|---|---|---|
| Minimize | Shrinks the player into the mini player in a corner. | Always |
| Sound | Mutes and unmutes. | Videos |
| CC | Turns subtitles off and on. It looks dimmed while subtitles are off. | Videos with subtitles |
| Like (heart) | Likes the video. The like is saved in the shopper's browser only. | When Show like button is on |
| Share | Opens the device's share sheet, or copies the page link where there isn't one. A tick shows for a moment after the link is copied. | When a share setting is on |
| Close | Closes the player. | Always |
Your brand logo shows in the top left, if you've added one. The product card sits at the bottom. See Shopping from a video.
The player's buttons follow the Theme you pick in Settings → Appearance: light icons on dark buttons, or dark icons on light buttons.
Moving around
| To | Shoppers can |
|---|---|
| Go to the next or previous clip | Swipe or drag up and down, scroll with the mouse wheel or trackpad, use the arrow buttons, or press the arrow keys |
| Pause or play | Tap the video |
| Close | Tap Close, or press Esc |
On the first clip the "previous" arrow is greyed out, and on the last clip the "next" arrow is. A swipe past either end springs back.
With a keyboard, Up or Left goes to the previous clip, and Down or Right goes to the next. Tab stays inside the player while it's open, and only the clip on screen can be reached.
The player doesn't add a page to the browser history. On computers and iPhones, Back leaves the page. On Android, the back gesture may close the player instead.
Sound
Videos open with sound unless Open muted is on in Settings or Start with sound off is on in the widget's Player tab. Some browsers, especially on iPhones, only allow sound after a tap. When a browser blocks sound, the video plays muted instead and the sound button shows as muted.
Once a shopper unmutes, the next clips play with sound too, until the player closes.
When a video ends
With Autoplay on in Settings, the default, the player moves on to the next clip. The last clip loops. With Autoplay off, each video loops until the shopper moves on. Images stay on screen until the shopper swipes.
Captions and subtitles
- Captions: a short line of text above the product card, up to three lines, taken from the file's alt text. Shown when Show media captions (Settings) or Show captions (widget) is on.
- Subtitles: the spoken words, timed to the video, for videos with a subtitle track. They're on by default, and the CC button turns them off. The shopper's choice holds for the rest of their visit. The CC button appears a moment after the clip opens, once its subtitles have loaded.
Captions come from the file's alt text
The caption shoppers see is the file's alt text in Shopify Files, not the Caption you write in the Video library. The alt text is copied into a widget when you save it, so after changing it, save each widget that uses the clip. See Where the captions shoppers see come from.
Language
The player's own words, such as Add to cart, Sold out, and the button labels read out by screen readers, show in the language the shopper's store is set to. See What shoppers see.
Mini player
A small, floating version of the player in a corner of the screen. The page stays usable underneath, and the video keeps playing while the shopper scrolls.
- Shoppers get it by tapping Minimize, or straight away when the widget's Open in is Floating mini player.
- Tapping it expands it back to the full viewer.
- It shows the video, a compact product card, CC, Like, Expand, and Close.
- Tapping the product card expands the player first, then opens the quick add panel, or the product page if Buy button action says so.
- The progress bar, sound button, share button, captions, logo, and review stars are hidden.
- Shoppers can't swipe or scroll between clips in it. They expand it first. With Autoplay on, it still moves on when a video ends.
- It sits in the Corner set on the widget's Player tab, at the Mini player size you chose.
- It closes when the shopper goes to another page.
Sound in the mini player
The mini player has no sound button. A video playing with sound stays that way until the shopper expands the player and mutes it, or closes it.
What the player doesn't have
- No creator name. The Show social handle setting is meant to show who posted an imported clip, but it doesn't show anything yet. See Fullscreen player settings.
- No link to a single video. Share links to the page the widget is on.