Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 21:25:15
If you're posting a link to YouTube and there isn't any embedded video appearing in the post, it's possibly because YouTube has started automatically putting a shortener (youtu.be) on its sharing links.
To have a link that will embed properly in a Mastodon etc post, use the full version of the YouTube video's address which begins youtube.com (instead of youtu.be). You can get this full version from the address bar of your web browser when you're watching the video.
Föderation · Di 06.08.2024 21:30:20
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services using youtube address bar to share link also avoids some google tracking
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 21:34:03
Yeah, tracking seems to be the main reason why Google are putting shorteners in everything π
Föderation EN Sa 10.08.2024 19:50:26
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 21:31:26
@FediTips ahhh! I wondered when the video was embedded and when not .. thanks!
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 21:40:51
@FediTips I just had that happen with a gift link from the WaPo
Föderation RO Di 06.08.2024 21:53:31
I'm using Freetube to watch youtube videos so I can't copy link with "youtube.com" but only "youtu.be"
Föderation RO Di 06.08.2024 21:54:20
If you copy the youtu.be link into a browser, it will turn into a youtube.com link as that's the real address of the video.
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 21:54:53
@FediTips google is evil
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 21:58:03
@FediTips Thanks! I was trying to figure out what the issue was.
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 22:26:46
thank you ! very useful
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 22:31:45
@FediTips side note: anything after the ? In a YouTube link can and should be removed. It's all tracking info.
If you've clicked a YouTube link on Fedi before, there's a good chance Google has linked your Fedi account to your Google account in their backend systems via tracking.
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 22:59:12
@FediTips thanks!!
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 22:59:38
p.s. It's possible too that this may not work for you, there seems to be a bug that is difficult to nail down. I've just been messaging with someone who cannot get the full length address to work for some videos on their server, but the same addresses work on my server.
I'm mainly posting about the shortener because removing it has worked for some people, and it's worth a try. (Plus removing shorteners will help protect your privacy in any case.)
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 23:08:09
@FediTips there was a weird config/bug a few weeks back where YouTube preview links in toots were showing up in German regardless of the original language. (Don't know if it was instance specific)
Föderation EN Di 06.08.2024 23:19:08
@FediTips I experience this with some PeerTube videos as well. I cant see any pattern of that occuring, it happens that one video is getting embed fine, and the next one from the same instance fails. Same with YouTube videos too.
Can it be Mastodon-specific issue?
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 20:07:51
Have you tried waiting and reloading the page later in the day? Instances are sometimes slow to generate the preview.
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 20:19:25
@FediTips yes, waiting resolves the issue.
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 00:18:06
@FediTips the YouTu.be shortener is just the video ID, so the privacy should be the same as any YouTube link
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 20:06:40
Ahhh... that's a really good point, did not notice they were 100% identical.
For some reason I'd got into my head they had put a different code on the shortener, but obviously not.
Föderation EN Sa 10.08.2024 19:06:51
@FediTips yes actually that method doesnβt work on our instance either. Tried the full address, but still not getting preview.
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 00:58:24
@FediTips or you can just manually retype it from youtu.be/<ID> to youtube.com/watch?v=<ID>
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 02:17:02
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 04:13:36
I was wondering about that.
Föderation EN Mi 07.08.2024 04:36:30
@FediTips Or that annoying german consent interruption page.
Föderation EN Sa 10.08.2024 20:51:38
YouTube link sharing
Föderation EN So 11.08.2024 03:14:17
@FediTips Unless you're in the app, in which case it only gives you the shortened version.
Is there a technical reason the preview cannot be extracted from the shortened URL?
Föderation EN So 11.08.2024 21:25:40
I don't know, I'm not sure how easy it is to code a preview from shorteners.
There isn't any point using shorteners on here (as all links count as 23 characters) so it may be the devs haven't considered doing previews of them?