Recently one of our users asked if it was possible to add a video as a post thumbnail instead of a featured image? By default, WordPress allows you to add featured image with a post, but what if you wanted to add videos instead? In this article, we will show you how to add a featured video thumbnail in WordPress instead of featured image.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Featured Video Plus plugin. Upon activation, you can visit the post edit screen by creating a new post or editing an existing one. You will see a new ‘Featured Video’ metabox

All you need to do is paste the video URL, and the plugin will automatically fetch and display a preview in the metabox.

When you preview your post on your website, the featured image will be replaced by the video. Your preview may look different, depending on how your theme handles featured images.

Configuring Featured Video Settings

You can fine tune featured videos on your site by visiting Settings » Media.

First you need to choose the usage settings. The default choice is to automatically replace featured image with the video. You can change it to open the video only when featured image is clicked, or to display featured video and auto-play if possible.

If you choose none of the above, then you can manually display featured video with shortcode or PHP functions.

Next, you can enable autoplay for your videos and adjust the video size. The default size is set on auto, but if that doesn’t work with your theme, then you can manually enter the height and width.

Among other options, you can configure how to handle local videos. These are manually uploaded videos which is a bad option. See why you should never upload a video to your WordPress site.

The plugin can handle YouTube, Vimeo, and DailyMotion videos, and we recommend you upload on one of those sites.

Click on Save Changes button when you are satisfied with the settings.

That’s all, we hope this article helped you add featured video as featured image in WordPress. You may also want to take a look at these useful YouTube tips to spice up your WordPress site with videos.

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