22 Awesome Vidyard Hacks You Need to Know About
Impress your prospects, customers, and coworkers with super cool Vidyard hacks, tricks, and hidden features that’ll take your videos to the next level.
Vidyard can do a lot. I mean, seriously, A LOT. But there are some cool Vidyard hacks that even the most experienced users may not know about.
These Vidyard hacks, tricks, and little-known features will take your video game to the next level and make you feel like a pro in no time.
- Contents
- 1. Vidyard Chrome Extension Hacks
- 1.1 Set Up Keyboard Shortcuts for the Chrome Extension
- 1.2 Hide Recording Controls
- 1.3 Cut Out Background Noise Using Krisp
- 1.4 Move Your Speaker Bubble
- 1.5 Resize Your Speaker Bubble
- 1.6 Doodle on Your Screen Recording
- 1.7 Go Full-Screen on a Google Slides Presentation Without Losing Your Speaker Bubble
- 1.8 Screen Record on Pages That Don’t Allow Screen Recording
- 1.9 Use an External Mic and/or Camera
- 1.10 Send a Video in a LinkedIn Message
- 1.11 Record From an Incognito Browser Window
- 2. Vidyard Video Viewing Hacks
- 2.1 Multitask While Watching Videos Using Picture-in-Picture
- 3. Vidyard Video Platform Hacks
- 3.1 Record PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, and More with the Vidyard Desktop App
- 3.2 Switch Up Your Background Using Zoom
- 3.3 Add Your Video’s Length to its Thumbnail
- 3.4 Record a Zoom Call and Send it Directly to Vidyard
- 3.5 Record and Share Videos Right through Slack
- 3.6 Time Out Your Video Script with One Click
- 3.7 Add Video Chapters
- 3.8 Publish Vidyard Videos to YouTube
- 3.9 Use Video Templates
- 3.10 Watch Sales Feed Content inside Vidyard
Vidyard Chrome Extension Hacks
1. Set Up Keyboard Shortcuts for the Chrome Extension
Nothing makes you feel like a pro quite like knowing keyboard shortcuts. With the Vidyard Chrome extension, you get to choose your own.
Keyboard shortcuts are available for four key controls: Activate the extension, pause/resume recording, restart recording, and stop recording.
- Click the puzzle piece icon in Chrome, then choose Manage Extensions
- Click the three-line “hamburger” menu in the top left corner of the screen and choose Keyboard shortcuts
- Scroll to the extension labeled “Vidyard – Webcam & Screen Recorder for Sales” and type your desired shortcuts into the boxes provided
You set whatever you like for each, so long as it includes one of the following keys:
- Mac: Command, Ctrl or Alt
- Windows: Ctrl or Alt
2. Hide Recording Controls
Every time you create a screen or webcam Vidyard recording using the Chrome extension, a set of controls shows up on the screen and appears in your final video.
But they don’t have to.
- Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
- Click the gear icon to visit the settings tab
- Untick the box marked Show recording controls
Note: This pairs well with using keyboard shortcuts to control the Chrome extension.
3. Cut Out Background Noise Using Krisp
Whether it’s chatter in an open office or your dog barking in the background while working from home, background noise can be a serious distraction in your videos.
Krisp is a Chrome extension that lessens background noise and works with the Vidyard Chrome extension. That means you can record videos with crisper, cleaner audio (even if your workspace is anything but).
The free version allows up to 60 minutes of use per day. Just toggle it on, then start your Vidyard recording.
4. Move Your Speaker Bubble
This one isn’t, strictly speaking, a hack. It’s just a super cool little-known feature. Simply click on your speaker bubble and drag it where you want it to appear on your screen.
Note: You can combine this with the bubble resizing hack to really customize the look of your hybrid screen record-webcam videos.
5. Resize Your Speaker Bubble
Also not a hack per se, but it is a new feature that you should all know about. You can now resize the speaker bubble to really customize the look of your hybrid screen record-webcam videos.
This is a great way to catch your audience’s attention right up front. Start off with the bubble in the large size to introduce yourself, and then when you are ready to start your presentation and speak to slides or a website behind you, resize your bubble and move it to the side so they can see what you’re speaking about.
6. Doodle on Your Screen Recording
Ever wanted to underscore a point you were making or draw viewer attention to something specific on a screen?
Good news! It’s totally easy with a little-known built-in feature with the Vidyard screen recorder.
- Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
- Choose either the Screen + Cam or the Screen option
- Hit Start Recording
- In the Chrome extension control panel (in the bottom right of your screen), click the pen icon to Toggle Draw Controls
- Choose from three pen size options by clicking the dot
- Select your pen color by clicking the paint palette (your ink will be gray by default)
- Use your cursor to draw on your screen
Whatever you draw will begin to fade in a few seconds, making it easy for you to highlight multiple things (for instance, if you’re recording a how-to video).
7. Go Full-Screen on a Google Slides Presentation Without Losing Your Speaker Bubble
While presenting from the Google Slides edit screen—which shows thumbnails of slides along the left-hand side of the screen along with edit options along the top—is a popular option, sometimes you want to minimize potential distractions.
This Vidyard hack makes the slide you’re presenting the focus of your screen.
- Click the downward arrow next to Slideshow in the upper right-hand corner
- Choose Presenter view to make your slides full-screen within your browser window
- Close or minimize the Presenter view popup (you don’t need it)
- To avoid having black bars around your presentation, resize your browser window to fit your presentation
- Open the Vidyard Chrome extension, choose the Screen + Cam option, and select Tab Only
- Hit Start Recording to begin capturing your screen
8. Screen Record on Pages That Don’t Allow Screen Recording
Some sites don’t allow you to begin a screen recording, but that doesn’t mean you can’t record those sites—just that you can’t start there.
- Open up your desired unrecordable site in a tab
- Launch a site that allows recording (such as Google) in another tab
- Open the Vidyard Chrome extension, choose the Screen + Cam or Screen option and select Full Desktop
- Begin your screen recording on the other tab, then flip to the site you’d like to record
- Once you’ve finished your recording, you can use the Trim option on your video edit page to remove the beginning portion of your video
Note: An alternative option is to do a Tab Only recording where you begin on the recordable site, then immediately navigate to your desired site. As with the other option, use Trim as needed.
9. Use an External Mic and/or Camera
You don’t have to rely on your computer’s built-in webcam or your headphones. If you want to bump up the quality of your video messages, you can connect an external camera and mic.
- Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
- Click the dropdown boxes to view input sources
- Select your desired cam and mic from the appropriate dropdown menus
10. Send a Video in a LinkedIn Message
Few know about this Vidyard hack yet, but you can now record and send a video using Vidyard in a LinkedIn message. This is game-changing when using LinkedIn for prospecting. Instead of taking multiple steps to email someone a video, you can now send them an introductory video straight in your very first point of contact in a LinkedIn message.
- Install the Vidyard Chrome extension
- Open the Compose Message window in LinkedIn, and you should see the Vidyard logo at the bottom of the message window.
- If you do not see the Vidyard logo, click on the Vidyard Chrome extension logo in your Chrome browser, go into Settings, and hit Reload
- Once the Vidyard logo is showing in the LinkedIn message window, you can click on the logo to start recording a video as usual
11. Record From an Incognito Browser Window
Need to record something on an incognito browser? You’ll have to allow the extension to work in that mode.
- Right-click on the Vidyard Chrome extension and select Manage Extension
- Scroll to Allow in incognito
- Toggle to ON
- Start an incognito browsing session and sign in to Vidyard
- Google will prompt you to allow Vidyard to use your camera and microphone—select Allow
- Proceed as usual
Vidyard Video Viewing Hacks
12. Multitask While Watching Videos Using Picture-in-Picture
This is a great productivity hack, especially for long videos. You can watch a Vidyard video in a small window while on another page using Google’s Picture-in-Picture extension.
- Install the Picture-in-Picture extension
- Open a Vidyard sharing page and click play on the video
- Navigate to another website
- Reposition the video in a desirable spot on your screen (optional)
- Continue watching while you do something else
Vidyard Video Platform Hacks
13. Record PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, and More with the Vidyard Desktop App
Vidyard’s browser extensions are, well, browser extensions. They’re great for recording inside a Chrome or Edge window, but if you want to record something outside your browser, you need another solution.
So we hacked ourselves. Vidyard’s Desktop App can record anywhere on your computer in up to 4K resolution.
14. Switch Up Your Background Using Zoom
With the rise of remote work and the proliferation of video conferencing, virtual backgrounds have become more popular than ever.
But, you don’t have to restrict your virtual digs to your Zoom calls. You just have to set up a call where you’re the only participant.
- Open up Zoom and click New Meeting
- Once in, click the upward arrow next to Stop Video and select Choose Virtual Background…
- Select your desired virtual background and close the popup window
- Click Record and choose where to save your meeting recording
- Once done, upload the recording to Vidyard
Bonus: With the Vidyard for Zoom integration, you can push your Zoom recording directly into Vidyard. Visit our Knowledge Base to learn about the requirements and set it up in your Vidyard account.
15. Add Your Video’s Length to its Thumbnail
Want viewers to know how long the video they’re about to watch is before clicking play? There’s a Vidyard hack for that.
For this one to work, you have to use the Vidyard Player API on your webpage to add additional metadata to the thumbnail.
Get the snippet of code and instructions in this Knowledge Base article.
16. Record a Zoom Call and Send it Directly to Vidyard
Did you know that Zoom actually integrates with Vidyard? Good news—it does!
Even better news: That makes it easy as pie for you to record a Zoom meeting and send it directly to your Vidyard account.
Whether it’s a team lunch and learn you want to save for those who missed it, an interview with an influencer you plan to share on social, or a sales call you’d like to review later, you can quickly and easily save all of your Zoom calls in Vidyard.
The integration lets you automatically generate English-language captions for your Zoom recordings, secure your video, share it via a Vidyard hub, and more.
Find out more about what it does and how to set it up through this Knowledge Base article.
17. Record and Share Videos Right through Slack
Vidyard is also integrated with Slack.
Sometimes you have a lot to tell your colleagues, but nobody wants to read an IM novel—and juggling schedules to set up a video conference is a pain in the neck. With the Vidyard integration, you can easily record and send an asynchronous video without leaving Slack. Can you say productivity hack?
Once you’ve added the Vidyard app to Slack, just type /vidyard to start recording. When you’re done, you can review the video, then DM it straight to a colleague or post it to a channel. The video plays right inside Slack. Viewers can react and comment to keep the conversation rolling.
18. Time Out Your Video Script with One Click
Want to estimate your script’s length and make sure you stay within a certain time limit before you start filming? We created an easy-to-use Video Script Timer, where all you have to do is copy and paste your script—and voilà!
Just plug your script in and select your reading speed to discover your script’s length. When you know how long your script will be, you can make more informed decisions when creating your video. And more informed decisions mean fewer takes, giving you back valuable time.
19. Add Video Chapters
Video chapters make it easier for viewers to navigate your content and for search engines to rank your videos.
Vidyard has a built-in chaptering tool that makes it a snap to create video chapters. You can find it on your video’s Edit page below the Thumbnail section.
Read our guide on video chapters to learn more.
20. Publish Vidyard Videos to YouTube
Your videos don’t have to live solely in your Vidyard library. Vidyard’s built-in YouTube integration lets you publish your content straight to YouTube, while retaining your video’s title, description, tags, thumbnail, and captions.
Find out more in this Knowledge Base article.
21. Use Video Templates
Need an idea for your next video? Try one of our video templates.
We asked sales experts to record templates for specific stages of the sales cycle, like cold outreach, prospecting follow-up, or deal progression. And we’re always adding more templates to the library, too.
Just pick a template that fits the video you want to make, and follow along with the pre-written script.
22. Watch Sales Feed Content inside Vidyard
Sales doesn’t have to be serious all the time. Have you heard the buzz around Sales Feed? It’s a “sellertainment” content channel that blew up on social, and it’s available right inside your Vidyard account.
Learn sales techniques from pro sellers, packaged with fresh humor by creators who get what life is really like in sales.
We hope these Vidyard hacks help you on your video journey. You’ll become a pro by embracing these Vidyard hacks in no time!
This post was originally published on July 6, 2020. It was updated on January 27, 2023.
