How do I make my website autoplay?

There's no setting on Squarespace's end that makes a video play automatically when a visitor opens the page. To autoplay a video, you'll need to adjust settings in your video host and use a custom embed code to add the video to a page. The exception is background videos, which play automatically.

This guide walks you through these steps and things to consider with autoplaying videos. To learn more about adding videos, visit Adding videos to your site.

Before you begin

• For the best user experience, only add one autoplaying video to a page. If your page has multiple autoplay videos, theyll all start playing at once when a page loads [unless you're using Vimeo].
• Video banners may play on mobile devices, but other videos won't autoplay on mobile.
• Video banners and .gif images automatically play when the page loads.

Some browsers prevent autoplay

Newer versions of some browsers prevent autoplay by default to protect their users' experience. Visitors using those browsers might have adjusted their settings to allow autoplay, only if they chose to do so.

Before adding an autoplay video to your site, you may want to review documentation for common browsers to see if they'll prevent your autoplay video. For example:

• Safari prevents autoplay for videos with sound, but visitors can customize settings to enable autoplay.
• Chrome also prevents autoplay for videos with sound. For more details, review Chrome's autoplay policy.

Background videos autoplay by default

Background videos always play on a loop without sound, so they work differently than other videos. To learn more, visit Adding a background video.

Get the autoplay code for other videos

Follow the steps below to adjust the embed code from each supported service:

• YouTube - After copying and pasting the embed code from YouTube, add ?autoplay=1 to the end of the URL within the code. If your embed URL already includes a ?, add &autoplay=1 at the end of the URL instead.
• Vimeo - Before copying the embed code, click + Show options. Check Autoplay this video, then copy and paste the code.
• Animoto - In the Embedded video tab, check Autostart, then copy and paste the embed code.

When you have the embed code, copy and paste it into the correct field in the video editor. For more help, visit Adding videos to your site.

Custom thumbnails block autoplay

If you add a custom thumbnail to your video in Squarespace, autoplay won't work, since thumbnails are designed to overlay on the page before a video loads. Remove the thumbnail or uncheck Use Thumbnail to allow autoplay.

Autoplay in Index galleries

Index pages support autoplay videos on gallery pages in these template families:

• Momentum
• Pacific

Grid index pages don't support videos in the thumbnail grid, but you can add autoplay videos to gallery pages within the Index.