It’s easier than ever to turn views into insights, manage video uploads, organize content, track viewer engagement, and trigger actions in your CRM or marketing automation platform.

You can also expect to save hours of time by automating tasks such as notifying your team and updating dashboards, as well as automating lead nurturing and campaign personalization.

Video Automation to Scale and Optimize Workflows

Time spent producing, organizing, and analyzing video is time that could be spent on more impactful work.

Digital video workflow inefficiencies are addressed through the new integration of SproutVideo with Make, a powerful automation platform that connects SproutVideo with over 2,500 apps, including Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, and OpenAI.

With custom automations, you can streamline your video workflow, from upload to engagement tracking.

Example Video Automation Workflows with Make

Effortless Video Management

• Automate video uploads to SproutVideo from files or URLs.
• Organize video content with tags and folders as soon as it is added.

Deeper Audience Insights

• Track video plays at key milestones (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
• Trigger alerts when viewers hit specific points or click CTAs.

Efficient Team Collaboration

• Notify a Slack channel when new videos are uploaded.
• Sync video data into dashboards or project management tools.

Boost Marketing & Sales

• Connect video engagement data to your CRM or email platform.
• Automate lead nurturing and campaign personalization with viewer steps.

Unleash AI Power

• Combine SproutVideo data with cutting-edge AI tools for next-level video automation workflows.

Ready to see how the SproutVideo and Make integration can transform your video automation workflow? Visit our help article to learn how to quickly enable the Make and SproutVideo integration. Alternatively, visit our Make integration page on Make.com.

The post Streamline Video Automation for Digital Workflows with SproutVideo and Make appeared first on SproutVideo.

Gain up to 33% more live streaming minutes at no additional cost. 

For our most popular plans, this means thousands of bonus minutes included each month. Plus, we’ve reduced extra-minute rates by 10-20% so you can worry less when your livestream runs long.

The best part? No action is required. We’ve already applied the savings to your account. 

Stream More, Pay Less

Our updated live streaming plans deliver more value at a lower cost without sacrificing the enterprise-grade features your team depends on.

• Stream More: Host longer (stress-free) events without raising your budget.
• Support Scale: Accommodate more viewers or additional sessions.
• Experiment Freely: Gain time to test new formats and engagement strategies. 

You get more live streaming minutes (Sprout, Tree, and Forest plans) with lower extra-minute rates for both input (stream duration) and delivery (viewer time) at no extra cost. 

What’s New

See the difference across plans:

Your Plan, Upgraded—No Action Required

All active plans now include updated live streaming pricing.  For current customers, your next billing statement will reflect the updated pricing.

SproutVideo is committed to providing reliable, customer-first video hosting and live streaming. This update is one more way we’re investing in your success. Thank you for your business.

The post Product Update: Live Streaming, Now More Affordable Than Ever appeared first on SproutVideo.

Generate hassle-free subtitles, review, and publish—no manual transcription or third-party tools needed. You’ll seamlessly boost content comprehension and get more of your time back.

Why It Matters

• Improve Engagement and Comprehension: Increase the information viewers can absorb while keeping them engaged, even with the sound off.
• Expand Accessibility and Inclusivity: Allow non-native viewers and those with auditory challenges to watch your videos more easily.  
• Save Time & Use Fewer Tools: Skip adding subtitles manually or with third-party transcription software—you can easily add and edit auto-generated subtitles.

How To Add Automated Subtitles To Your Videos

Newly uploaded (and replaced) videos automatically generate a subtitle track. Simply review and publish the track so viewers can enable it. 

All SproutVideo users can also generate subtitle tracks individually for existing videos uploaded before April 16, 2025. However, transcription for full video libraries is available upon request; see the full instructions below. 

Account-Wide Subtitle Options

By default, every new video automatically gets subtitles and must be manually published to make it available to viewers. However, within account-wide settings, you can: 

• Automatically publish generated subtitles*, making them available to viewers without prior review and manual publishing. 
• Enable subtitles for viewers by default, which means the subtitle track displays without the viewer needing to toggle subtitles on. 
• Disable automated subtitles for your account altogether. SproutVideo will not generate subtitles tracks when the feature is toggled off.

*While our automated transcripts have a 95% accuracy rate (for English), we recommend reviewing generated subtitles before publishing.

Note: Automated Subtitles supports 98 languages, with 57 meeting industry-standard benchmarks for speech-to-text model accuracy. The model will return results for all supported languages, but the quality will be lower for some.

How To Generate Automated Tracks For Existing Videos

To generate an automated subtitle track for an existing video, 

• Navigate to Manage Subtitle (under Additional Video Settings).
• Select New Automated Track to begin the process.

You will receive a notification email when the subtitles are ready to be reviewed and published.

When requesting the subtitle track, you can choose to auto-publish the subtitles. You can also “force display” subtitles, which means subtitles are automatically enabled for all viewers. Viewers can still manually turn them off.

How To Request Automated Tracks For Your Full Video Library

Contact SproutVideo support to request “bulk” subtitles for all the existing content in your video library. You’ll talk to a real person who will immediately initiate the process. 

Depending on the size of your account, it may take some time. We will email you when it is complete. This service is included with Sprout plans and above, as well as most legacy plans. 

How To Add Automated Subtitles To Live Streams

Improve live stream accessibility with real-time automated subtitles. To turn on automated subtitles for your live stream: 

• Start a new Live Stream.
• Toggle on Automated Subtitles (under Advanced Settings).

Then, simply finish setting up your broadcast and go live. 

Currently, automated subtitles for live streams are only available in English and are less accurate (estimated range of 70-95%) than on-demand videos. However, we reprocess subtitles for saved live streams, which generally improves subtitle accuracy.

Strengthen video messaging impact and simplify your workflow—try automated subtitles today! Also, look out for feature improvements in the near future. Thank you for being a SproutVideo customer! We’re excited to share more in 2025. 

• Top 10 Things We Launched At SproutVideo In 2024
• Product Update: Boost Engagement With File Attachments for Media
• Product Update: Playlists on Video Websites & Tons of New Features

The post Product Update: Automated Subtitles For Effortless Accessibility and Knowledge Retention appeared first on SproutVideo.

From efficient workflows to highly customized video websites, we’re thrilled to share the significant updates shaping your 2025 video strategy.

1. Playlists on Video Websites

Adding playlists to SproutVideo-hosted Video Websites makes it even easier to share educational courses, key features or benefits, serialized content, and much more. Use playlists to create a “binge-able” experience that keeps your audience hooked. 

Playlists offer extensive customization, including colors and playback, engagement tools like auto-advance or looping, and new privacy measures like signed embed codes. 

Design a video experience that engages your audience while keeping content secure, organized, and easily accessible for those with access. 

Learn More: Overview of Playlists on the Video Website

2. Simplified Video SEO Workflow for Embedded Content

Automate video indexing for embedded content, allowing you to index a large number of videos easily. Coined Embedded Media Discovery on our platform, this method of indexing video content uses Google’s latest guidance for ranking videos in search. 

You can toggle this setting account-wide to easily index a large number of videos without manually adding the canonical URL to each one. Once the video is embedded, Google will crawl the page to determine whether to index the video and how to rank it appropriately. 

Note: Use a video sitemap and Embedded Media Discovery to ensure all search engines can find your video and for redundancy. The method used for this workflow may only be supported by Google at this time. We recommend this practice to cover all search engines.

Learn More: Optimizing Videos for SEO — The Complete Guide

3. File Attachments for Videos, Playlists, and Live Streams on Video Websites

File attachments allow you to create a more enriching and engaging experience. Use file attachments to easily provide viewers with downloadable resources directly from the media shared on your video website. Securely distribute workbooks, onboarding checklists, spec sheets, pricing proposals, and any other file alongside your videos. 

Each media file can attach three files up to 20 MB each, for a total of 60MB of downloadable content. You can also view download analytics for each attachment to track when and how often the material is accessed.

Learn How: Attach Files to Videos, Live Streams, and Playlists

4. Display Related Videos and Playlists on Landing Pages

Encourage viewers to explore and continue engaging with your videos by displaying related content on landing pages and video websites. 

You can assign video tags to signal what content to display. Videos and playlists with one or more tags in common will appear under your video. You can also customize the title (e.g., “More Like This”) to provide additional context or brand-specific cues about the related content. 

Learn More: Settings for Displaying Related Videos

5. Clickable Timestamps in Video Descriptions on Video Websites

With clickable timestamps, it’s easy for viewers to tune into a specific part of your video. All you have to do is add the timestamps to your video description with relevant labels. When a video description is visible on landing pages or video websites, the timestamps are automatically highlighted and correspond to that specific time in your video. 

Learn More: How to Add Linked Timestamps in Content Descriptions

6. Viewer Progress Tracking on Video Websites

With viewer progress tracking, you can allow viewers to see their viewing progress at a glance and easily resume watching. This optional convenience feature enhances the user experience by providing a quick reference point and making it easy for viewers to continue watching.

Learn More: Settings for Content Listing Pages

7. Video Player Options on Video Websites

Custom player options allow you to control the playback experience. Ensure viewers watch the crispest resolution possible or prevent them from speeding up content by toggling off the settings button. Remove the option for viewers to skip ahead by hiding the seek bar.  

Player controls include the settings button, seek bar, volume, and fullscreen toggle. You can also show a large play button or the player controls for videos in a pre-play state.

Learn More: Players Options for Video Landing Pages

8. Control The Visibility of Login-Protected Video Listings

Allow logged-out users to see gated video content, even when they don’t have playable access. This feature allows you to hide or display videos for all website visitors. In other words, this feature permits logged-out users to preview content on your video website before logging in.  

For example, say you sell video courses and want to pique visitors’ interest in other courses you have available. You can allow logged-out users to see the other courses without letting them watch the content. Once logged in, they will see only the courses they can access. 

Learn More: How to Show Login Protected Videos to Logged Out Viewers

9. Upload Open Graph Image for Social Sharing

Determine the image displayed when sharing your video website on social media. Uploading an open graph image allows you to customize your website’s presentation when sharing the link on third-party applications with rich previews (Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, etc).

Learn More: Personalize Your Video Website

10. Choose When Poster Frames Animate

Share a seamless presentation, even when using a mix of still and animated poster frames. Choose when animated poster frames are active on your video website. With this customization setting, animated poster frames can play:

• Always: Animated poster frames loop (up to 8-seconds) continuously 
• On Hover: Animated poster frames only play when a mouse hovers over them
• Never: Animated poster frames never animate

Note that this feature applies to listed content (i.e., home page, search results, playlists) on video websites. Animated poster frames always animate on video landing pages.

Learn More: Settings for Content Listing Pages on Video Websites

The SproutVideo team is developing exciting new offerings for 2025. We can’t wait to add more expansive features to your video arsenal. Thank you for choosing SproutVideo.

Ready for more? Check out these related resources:

• Product Update: Boost Engagement With File Attachments for Media
• Help Guide: Overview of Playlists on the Video Website
• [Video] Product Update: Playlists on Video Websites & Tons of New Features

The post Top 10 Things We Launched At SproutVideo In 2024 appeared first on SproutVideo.

Now, viewers can download supplemental materials directly from your videos, live streams, and playlists on SproutVideo-hosted websites without navigating away, creating a more enriching and interactive experience. 

Equip media with instantly accessible resources, such as course syllabi, product manuals, worksheets, industry reports, sales contracts, and more.

Discover how to take advantage of file attachments below. 

6 Ways to Use File Attachments

File attachments make it easy for viewers to access additional materials directly from your SproutVideo-hosted video website, allowing you to create an engaging and efficient experience. 

Use file attachments to:

• Make Learning Immersive: Help viewers retain important information with impactful supplemental content like lesson slides, checklists, hands-on activities, or worksheets. 
• Enrich Product Perception: Attach brochures, spec sheets, or user manuals to provide all the details viewers need to evaluate and gain value from your products and services. 
• Increase Customer Satisfaction: Provide additional value with onboarding checklists and product walkthroughs to shorten time to value for customers.
• Reduce Support Inquiries: Empower viewers with troubleshooting guides, FAQs, and other support materials that help solve their problems at any time of day. 
• Share Critical Insights: Allow viewers to directly and securely access key documents and important information, such as a privacy policy, compliance forms, or financial data.
• Expedite Sales Cycles: Provide quick access for salespeople to share ebooks, guides, pricing proposals, and contracts alongside videos to increase sales cycle velocity. 

Note: Want to ensure file attachments are secure? Security measures restricting access to your live streams, videos, and playlists protect your file attachments. Consider employing login or password protection.

How to Add File Attachments to Media

The type of file you can upload is not restricted, and each media item can have up to three attachments. However, each file must be 20 MB or less. 

That means each video, live stream, or playlist can have 60 MB total of supplemental content. For perspective, the average text-based PDF file is about 10 KB per page. 

To add a file attachment, 

• Navigate to the media item (video, live stream, or playlist) 
• Under Settings, scroll down and locate Attach Documents
• Select Choose File and click on the file you want to upload
• Click Save Changes (or Save Selection for Playlists) to upload the file.

When the page refreshes, your file and its size will be displayed. If the file you attempt to upload is too large, you will receive an error message instead. 

Learn More: How to Attach Files to Videos, Live Streams, and Playlists

How to View Analytics For File Attachments

You can view the number of times viewers have downloaded each file from your content. There are two ways to access this information:

• Settings: Under Attach Documents, you can view the number of downloads, which is located between the file size and trashcan. 
• Analytics: Navigate to the media’s Analytics and select File Attachments. Here, you’ll find a graph showing the downloads for each file expressed over time. 

If you already have a SproutVideo-hosted video website, you can immediately start using file attachments. This new feature is available on Sprout, Tree, and Forest plans. 

Check out related content and other recent product updates below. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

• Product Update: Playlists on Video Websites & Tons of New Features
• Product Update: Watermark Customizations, Direct Video Links, and Cloud Storage Importing
• Best Practices to Securely Share Corporate Video
• 6 Ways to Protect and Share Video Content with Confidence

The post Product Update: Boost Engagement With File Attachments for Media appeared first on SproutVideo.

We’re thrilled to share new features that elevate the video experience. Discover more ways to effortlessly increase viewer engagement and streamline your workflow. 

This update includes something for all users, whether you keep video content private or deliver your message to the world. Explore our favorite new features below. 

Share Playlists On Your SproutVideo Website

Build a polished video sequence that focuses viewer attention on your content. Introducing Playlists on SproutVideo-hosted Video Websites. 

Fine-tuned customizations allow you to choose how to display your playlists and determine who can access that content. 

• Create a structured learning path for customers, students, or employees. Make it easy to access content, revisit specific topics, and learn at their own pace.
• Showcase key features and benefits of your product to drive purchase decisions.
• Build a video-based knowledge center to help your customers use a product effectively. This practice reduces support requests and improves product satisfaction and retention. 
• Produce serialized video content to build a loyal audience and establish topic authority with search engines.
• Inform stakeholders through organized video updates to provide reliable internal communications that ensure alignment on key initiatives, financials, and policies. 

Explore limitless possibilities for organizing, securing, and sharing your video content.

Design the look and feel of your playlists to create a “binge-able” experience that keeps your audience hooked. Our favorite features include:

• Encourage playlist views with custom still or animated playlist poster frames 
• Provide an uninterrupted viewing experience with auto-advance and looping, now available for Playlists on Video Websites
• Protect embedded playlists with password protection and signed embed codes

Check out the full list of new playlist features in the release notes. 

Note: You can access all new playlist features and settings via the SproutVideo API.

Video Website Updates

Viewer Progress Tracking on Video Websites 

Enhance the viewing experience with a visual progress indicator at the bottom of video thumbnails. It acts as a point of reference for their progress and allows them to easily resume.

With this convenient feature, your audience can see how much of the video they’ve watched at a glance. Once clicked, the video resumes from where they left off. 

This is an optional setting within Site Editor. 

Auto-Pause When Viewer Switches Tabs 

Improve viewer engagement and information retention by automatically pausing videos if the viewer switches tabs. When the viewer switches back to the player, the video resumes. 

This is an optional setting within Site Editor.   

Clickable Timestamps in Video Descriptions

Clickable timestamps help viewers quickly find relevant parts of a video. Timestamps in your video description become clickable links to the corresponding point in your video on SproutVideo-hosted landing pages. 

This workflow feature improves the viewer experience and increases engagement, making it especially useful for educational and long-form content. 

Not a customer yet? Start using the platform for free; no credit card required.

Choose When Poster Frames Animate

Create a seamless presentation on your video website using a mix of still and animated poster frames. Choose whether animated poster frames play:

• Always: Animated poster frames loop (up to 8-seconds) continuously 
• On Hover: Animated poster frames only play when a mouse hovers over them
• Never: Animated poster frames never animate

This feature applies to video website pages with listed content (i.e., home page, search results, playlists). Animated poster frames always animate on video landing pages. 

Video Player Options on Video Websites 

Customize the viewer’s playback experience by choosing what video player controls to hide or display. Users that share their content with SproutVideo-hosted Landing Pages can now:

• Show a large play button or player controls before a video is played
• Hide or show the fullscreen button, volume bar, seek bar, and settings button

Control The Visibility of Login-Protected Video Listings

Pique interest and engagement by showcasing gated video content for all website visitors, even when they are logged out.  

Videos secured with Viewer Login Protection are not playable until visitors successfully log in to your video website. However, now you can decide if your audience can see listings for all videos on your video website, whether or not they’re logged in. 

Display Related Videos and Playlists on Landing Pages

Display your related video content to encourage engagement with other videos and playlists on your site. This new feature allows you to display a list of your related content in the footer of any video landing page and playlist overview page.

Related video recommendations are determined by the video tags you assign to your content. The more tags videos or playlists have in common, the more likely they are to show up as related content.

Video SEO Updates

Add Meta Descriptions to Video Website Pages

Meta descriptions provide readers and search engines with additional information about your website, which is helpful for video SEO. You can now add a meta description to the pages of your SproutVideo-hosted Video Website. When sharing pages from your video website, this meta description is displayed along with the Open Graph image (discussed next). 

Upload Open Graph Image for Social Sharing

Enhance branding and customize your website’s presentation with Open Graph images for social sharing. When someone shares a link to your SproutVideo-hosted Video Website, this image will display in applications with rich previews (Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, etc).

Simplified Video SEO Workflow for Embedded Content

Enjoy a new and improved video SEO workflow with Embedded Media Discovery. You can now automate video indexing for embedded content, allowing you to easily index a large number of videos. This feature takes advantage of Google’s latest guidance for video players.

With this workflow, you can signal to Google that your videos should be indexed without creating a video sitemap and adding the canonical (embedded) URL manually to every video. 

When this setting is enabled, videos may be indexed by Google like any other website content: when search engines crawl the page. 

Note: Use a video sitemap and Embedded Media Discovery to ensure all search engines can find your video and for redundancy. The method used for this workflow may only be supported by Google at this time. We recommend this practice to cover all search engines.

Read More: The Full List of Product Updates Q3 2024

Explore all of the new possibilities this product update provides: read the full list of updates, tour the redesigned Playlists page and Site Editor, reference our new help guides (below), and please don’t hesitate to contact our human-powered Support team. 

• What is Video Metadata and How Do I Use It?
• Overview of Playlists on the Video Website
• How to Create a Video Website in 10 Easy Steps
• Product Update: Watermark Customizations, Direct Video Links, and Cloud Storage Importing

As always, we’re here to help and excited to hear your feedback. We appreciate you and your business. The full list of product updates can be found here. 

The post Product Update: Playlists on Video Websites & Tons of New Features appeared first on SproutVideo.

“A single tree in one year produces roughly 260 pounds of oxygen. It’s difficult to quantify this impact, but we know by helping plant thousands of trees, we’re contributing to the health of ecosystems and populations worldwide. We are immensely proud to celebrate eight years of partnership with the National Forest Foundation.”

— Adam Podolnick, CEO, SproutVideo

From the SproutVideo Earth Day Video Archive

Through SproutVideo’s enduring collaboration with the NFF, they have made significant strides in replenishing and safeguarding natural landscapes. Their ongoing contributions have facilitated the planting of thousands of trees, accounting for 3M+ pounds of new oxygen. The environmental impact fosters biodiversity, mitigates climate change, and enhances community recreational opportunities.

“On behalf of the National Forest Foundation (NFF), I extend heartfelt gratitude to Sprout Video for their unwavering commitment as stewards of the environment through NFF’s Sapling Program. Since our partnership began in 2016, SproutVideo has exemplified dedication by planting an impressive 11,300 trees! Through their support for planting trees, SproutVideo contributes to cleaner air and water, fosters improved wildlife habitat, and enhances biodiversity. Thank you for being a vital force in this mission to restore and protect these treasured places!”

— Abby Schembra, National Forest Foundation Reforestation Team

SproutVideo’s dedication to environmental stewardship extends beyond monetary donations. A core company value is minimizing its environmental impact and doing what’s best to protect nature. Over the years, SproutVideo has encouraged commuting via public transportation, remote work, reducing paper waste, recycling, and making easy everyday changes, like using rechargeable batteries in the offices. Employees have actively engaged in tree planting, sustainable agriculture, organic pest control, drip irrigation, composting, recycling, and creating pollen-rich environments for bees and other pollinators.

“Coming from Chicago, where it’s too cold to put anything outside before May, I can garden 9 months out of the year by starting my growing season from seeds. Not only am I trying to grow what I eat, but I’m also trying to find the right companion plants to encourage a healthy ecosystem of insects. Once warm enough, I transplant my seedlings to my rooftop garden, my personal oasis in the city.”

— Joyce Yee, Sr. Software Engineer.

SproutVideo Employee Gardening Snapshots

An important element of the SproutVideo culture is having fun and educating others with video content. In the spirit of celebrating the concept of seed-to-forest, this year SproutVideo produced an April Fools video announcing a fictitious initiative called Tree-volution.

For more information about SproutVideo’s sustainability initiatives or how you can support the National Forest Foundation, please visit our Trees page or the NFF Website.

About SproutVideo:

SproutVideo is a video hosting platform for business. We offer all the video privacy, marketing, and analytics tools any business needs to succeed with live and on-demand video content online. Learn more about our company values and dedication to forests or visit our website sproutvideo.com. 

About the National Forest Foundation:

The National Forest Foundation is the leading organization inspiring personal and meaningful connections to our National Forests, the centerpiece of America’s public lands. Working on behalf of the American public, the NFF leads forest conservation efforts and promotes responsible recreation. We believe these lands, and all they provide, are an American treasure and are vital to the health of our communities. To learn more, visit the NFF Website.

Contact:
Tim Ryan
SproutVideo
tim@sproutvideo.com

The post SproutVideo Celebrates Eight Years of Supporting National Forests appeared first on SproutVideo.

Check out four new features to help you manage your video assets, easily market video content, and customize the viewer experience. 

Customizable Dynamic Watermarks

Dynamic watermarks protect your content from theft, piracy, and unauthorized distribution by displaying the viewer’s information on-screen. This type of video watermark continuously moves on a timed interval, making it nearly impossible to crop out. You can set this watermark to appear on some or all of your videos. 

With our latest updates to dynamic watermarks, you have even more control of your video security. Adjust the background transparency, how frequently the watermark changes positions, restrict placement to avoid the video’s center, or even hide the watermark intermittently to limit any potential interference with your content.

Read More: 4 Ways to Customize Dynamic Watermarks

Improved Workflow for Downloading Video Assets

Introducing a redesigned download workflow to help manage your video assets. You can access the improved workflow from any uploaded video in your account.

Now, you can: 

• View and download all resolutions of an uploaded video 
• See the file size of downloadable assets before downloading them 
• Download video poster frames — both static and animated 

Flexible download options offer several benefits, including:

• Improve your archival workflow
• Share assets between team members for fast collaboration
• Download recorded live streams for editing, then replace the original file
• Reuse assets, such as animated poster frames, in marketing campaigns

Read More: How to Download Video Assets

Easy Access to Direct Video Links & m3u8 for HLS Streaming

Along with easier access to your downloadable video assets, this product update makes it easy to get direct access to video file URLs, like mp4 and m3u8 for HLS streaming.

Direct video links are sometimes necessary for third-party platforms, application building, and website plugins. Specific examples include WordPress themes that require an m3u8 link and businesses that need a white-label player for selling subscription-based content through a private app. 

Read More: Get Direct Video File Access

Import Videos Directly from Third-Party Storage Accounts

The SproutVideo platform has always made it easy to quickly upload your video files. This update adds the ability to directly import videos to your account from third-party storage services: Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and One Drive.

Import videos from third-party services directly from the Upload page within your SproutVideo account. We hope this ease-of-use feature will help make your workflow more seamless than ever before. 

Read More: How to Import Videos from Third-Party Storage Accounts

We love hearing your feedback! This product update includes lots more changes that were requested by you: added control over SEO and search engine indexing, easier account management, new player color customizations for video websites, and more.

Read More: 25 More New Additions from This Product Release

We are constantly improving and want to hear from you. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Support with your own requests and feedback.

As always, we’re here to help! Get the most out of your SproutVideo experience with our knowledge base of help articles, how-to guides, and a human-powered support team. 

The post Product Update: Watermark Customizations, Direct Video Links, and Cloud Storage Importing appeared first on SproutVideo.

Do you remember when you went from 12 to 13 years old? It’s a transitional age when the mental shift into teenage years, while sometimes awkward, leads to exciting new ways of being in the world. 

This year, SproutVideo turns 13 years old, and we’re celebrating what it means to become a sustainable teenage business.

As the newest hire and marketing leader, I’m excited to share five “outsider” perspectives on what makes SproutVideo a pleasant surprise as an employee and a dependable video hosting platform for customers. 

1. Solve an Underserved Market Problem; Have Fun 

Thriving as a SaaS business in a competitive market happens when you enthusiastically solve a problem. During my onboarding, I learned how foundational values have guided SproutVideo over the past 13 years. 

At the heart of our mission and values lies the unwavering belief that every individual and business, regardless of their scale or form, deserves an easy and secure solution for hosting and embedding videos.

Mission: Be the most dependable solution for anyone to easily and securely share their videos and live streams.  

In my first month, I learned that 13 years of listening to the challenges of educators, marketers, engineers, creators, and entrepreneurs has resulted in thousands of incremental improvements to the platform. 

Through hours of market research, I also learned that SproutVideo fights above its weight class. SproutVideo is the David vs. Goliath, entirely bootstrapped and profitable in a market with publicly traded and venture-backed video hosting giants. 

If you embrace a trailblazing spirit, SproutVideo may be your soulmate. In contrast to many companies with public shareholders and venture capital financing, SproutVideo has complete autonomy to prioritize customer value and culture over growth metrics.

This freedom allows the company, and by extension, the team to innovate high-value features that solve real problems while having fun and prioritizing genuine work-life balance. 

2. Go Above and Beyond to Serve Customers 

I’ve worked with some of the best B2B SaaS client success teams and can confidently declare that SproutVideo’s customer support team is in a class of its own.

I spent a day in the trenches with this passionate support team and witnessed them go the extra mile to answer customer questions and resolve issues quickly. Their ability to search, analyze, and provide helpful answers was jaw-dropping. Their wit, patience, and empathy highlighted what makes human-to-human connections so powerful. 

SproutVideo also offers an extensive knowledge library with documentation to help customers get the answers they need any time of day. SproutVideo’s documentation on advanced login functionality, for example, shares how-to advice, tips, and best practices to better control and monitor who is accessing videos. 

“Easy-to-use documentation and great support.”

The documentation is clear and concise. If you have an issue or question, their support is excellent and will provide a quick and thorough response. I can’t think of anything I dislike. I’ve tried multiple video hosting platforms, and SproutVideo serves our needs exceptionally well. 

Colt C., Digital Director (Source: G2)

Here’s what you can expect from the SproutVideo support team — as a customer and during your free trial: 

• Direct answers and rapid response to your request for help.
• Human connection with real people on the other end of the line. No bots or AI chats. 
• In-house experts with helpful advice. No outsourcing, offshoring, or nearshoring. 
• A consistent point of contact who understands your business and needs. 
• Good, thoughtful, and funny people who will help you quickly work through your obstacles — so you can get on with your day.

3. Build Features that Customers Need 

Creating and maintaining a successful B2B SaaS product requires a thoughtful understanding of market trends and digital transformation. It also means staying ahead of customer needs and embracing agile methodologies to meet those needs. 

McKinsey & Company, a prominent international management consulting firm, suggests that small and independent teams are the lifeblood of an agile organization.  

To implement video hosting features quickly, SproutVideo’s product, design, and engineering teams work in an agile and highly collaborative manner. This lean approach leads to a flatter decision-making structure, rapid iterations, and efficient quality assurance to identify and fix issues. 

SproutVideos’s product team leverages real-time customer feedback, evolving market and security conditions, and hyper-efficient methodologies to build and ship relevant software. 

I’ve never seen this level of focus from a software and product development organization. They conceive, build, test, and ship software more efficiently than much larger organizations. As a result, SproutVideo customers experience updates and new features with fewer bugs and an elegant user experience. 

Moreover, SproutVideo sets itself apart by prioritizing security and privacy. This proactive approach guarantees that customers have access to enterprise-grade security features.

When you set the security of a video to “private,” you can embed it anywhere, and it can be viewed only there. If someone gets their hands on the link, they can’t view it from the link URL. This is why I chose Sprout for my company.

SproutVideo Customer, Computer Software (Source: G2)

4. Be the Best at Something but Not Everything

A common temptation in the video hosting industry is to accommodate every market need. This ‘all-in-one’ approach often creates an overly complex and confusing product with security vulnerabilities. This results in customers seeking help to navigate and fully understand the product, leading to frustration and extra requests for assistance. Client success teams become overburdened and take much longer to respond. 

Instead of trying to meet every need, SproutVideo has held a 13-year focus on the most critical customer challenges. This focus improves ease of use and means customers don’t overpay for tools and features they never intend to use. I sifted through nearly 200 client reviews and identified four of the most consistent customer needs, showcasing where SproutVideo excels. 

Flexible Video Hosting 

SproutVideo is a versatile video hosting solution intentionally designed for reliability, security, customization, and user-friendliness. 

What to expect: 

• Fast and high-quality playback resulting in a better viewing experience 
• Fabulous UI for easy video management, embedding, and tracking
• Ad-free video hosting for an elevated viewing experience
• Integrations and a robust API that enables enriched video management, player customization, video analytics, webhooks, and programmatic embed codes.

Privacy and Security 

SproutVideo is a highly secure video hosting solution with advanced privacy functionality and controls to prevent unauthorized access, data breaches, and potential threats.

What to expect: 

• Protect commercially sensitive video content, IP, gated materials, and user data against threats and unauthorized access with enhanced password, login, single sign-on, encryption, and watermark capabilities.
• Enhanced API-driven security features like token-based authentication and the ability to restrict video access to specific domains, which is particularly useful for preventing unauthorized embedding of your videos on external websites. 

Ease of Use 

SproutVideo is a hassle-free video hosting and management solution with easy set-up, intuitive analytics, and highly dependable support. 

What to expect: 

• A clean and easy-to-use interface for content management, sharing, and tracking 
• Highly responsive, reliable, and empathetic customer support for a better experience
• Fast uploads and frustration-free embedding
• Analytics to track, validate, optimize, and support your video strategy
• A free trial to use every feature without requiring a credit card 
• Simple, fair, and transparent pricing with no long-term contracts 

“Works great and is easy to use.”

I like how SproutVideo has an easy-to-follow UX design. I don’t often have to visit support when I perform a task I haven’t done before. Everything is clearly labeled and flows in a way that makes sense to new users.

Brianne L., Marketing Specialist (Source: G2)

Customization

SproutVideo’s dependable video hosting platform offers customized settings for your video player, landing pages, embeds, and flexible integrations. 

What to expect: 

• Simple and effective integrations so you don’t miss a beat
• Flexible and customizable player controls and design, video thumbnails, embed codes, playback options, video webpages, private sharing settings, watermarks, and more.  
• An intuitive and personalized end-user viewing experience for brand continuity
• Advanced lead capture tools to drive demand, build your funnel, and track attribution ROI

5. Don’t Market. Educate

If you check the SproutVideo blog or watch videos, you’ll soon realize that SproutVideo’s lean-but-mighty marketing team is really a group of educators and content creators. They don’t try to “sell” prospective customers. Rather, they offer insightful, engaging, and educational content that empowers people to become better at their jobs. 

Take Nick, our creative director, video producer, and former science teacher. He produces countless how-to videos on topics like how to capture better audio or how to find music and edit it into your videos. 

Our in-house copywriter, Conner, conducts rigorous research to write value-rich articles. Whether providing insights on secure corporate video-sharing techniques or unveiling the top 10 AI tools for video editing, Conner has a unique talent for distilling research into easy-to-apply content. By reading Conner’s work, you’re not just gaining knowledge – you’re investing in your growth, armed with the tools to elevate your work and achieve better outcomes.

Our growth marketer, Deja, works to package and share meaningful content throughout our online channels like this Instagram reel, for example.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SproutVideo (@sproutvideo)

Our senior designer, Sara, creates thoughtful and beautiful visuals for our educational content, like this blog post feature image, that incorporate elements from the products and services listed in the blog post. 

Here’s to 13 More Years… and Then Some! 

At 13, the peer pressure to conform is real. It’s the age when many begin experimenting with new things, hairstyles, music, and activities. 

From my newbie perspective, SproutVideo is a highly self-assured teen immune to the pressure to be everything to everyone.

Grounded by core values and an independent spirit, SproutVideo has become a market leader by developing exceptional customer listening skills, hiring and retaining kind and intelligent people, and focusing on core competencies. 

Happy Birthday to SproutVideo, and here’s to 13 more. 

The post SproutVideo at 13: An Outsider’s Perspective appeared first on SproutVideo.

OAuth2.0 allows us to work with developers and companies to create applications that seamlessly integrate with your account for improved workflow, marketing, and sales functionality. 

OAuth2.0 completes a long-standing SproutVideo goal. We can now work with companies and developers to build app integrations for the platform. Unlike API keys, these integrations will be available for all customers and seamlessly integrate with your account.

We’re excited to introduce three app integrations already available in your SproutVideo account today. We’ll also discuss the many benefits of OAuth2.0 authentication support! 

3 Apps to Integrate with Your Account

The applications below are available now for easy integration with your SproutVideo account. We’re excited to add to this library of valuable integrations to help you get more done in less time. 

Sky Pilot

Sell access to your videos with Sky Pilot. This Shopify application makes selling digital downloads and products, like videos, easy. Directly within Sky Pilot’s settings, you can choose SproutVideo as your hosting platform to share the necessary information between accounts. 

Crowdin

Localize your content with cloud-based Crowdin. Using the SproutVideo integration, Crowdin will automatically produce translated subtitles for your videos, allowing the value of your business to be received by people worldwide. 

Zapier

Use our Zapier integration to connect your SproutVideo account with over 5,000 different applications. Zapier can automate repetitive tasks by creating “zaps,” which are automated workflows initiated by a specific event or action.

What Makes These Integrations Possible? 

Previously, the SproutVideo platform only supported API keys. These offered a way to authenticate our application and use our API with third-party software. However, API keys can access all of a user’s account information. If unauthorized parties access that information, it requires manual revocation.

OAuth2.0 allows SproutVideo users to easily integrate their accounts with third-party applications and securely exchange data.

OAuth2.0 authentication support (for SproutVideo users):

• Grants access to only the specific information authorized within the application.
• Uses token-based authorization, which is more secure than API keys.
• Allows you to easily revoke access to third-party applications at any time.

For more information on understanding OAuth2.0, read Aaron Parecki’s Simplified Guide. For a less technical overview, check out David Neal’s Illustrated Guide. 

OAuth2.0 Specifics for Developers

The additional support for OAuth2.0 opens the door for developers to create applications that interact with SproutVideo. 

Developers creating a SproutVideo integration are welcome to email us for questions and help at support@sproutvideo.com.

The post 3 App Integrations to Maximize Your SproutVideo Account appeared first on SproutVideo.