Videos are one of the best ways to boost user engagement. Recently one of our users asked us about a way to create share button overlays on videos similar to the popular site UpWorthy. In this article, we will show you how to add share buttons as overlay on YouTube videos in WordPress.
Example of what it would look like:
Adding Share Buttons as Overlay on YouTube Videos
There were several ways that this could be done. Most ways would require you to paste a bits of HTML code every time you add a video. Instead of doing that, we decided to create a shortcode that would automate this overlay effect.
Simply copy and paste the following code in a site-specific plugin or your theme’s functions.php file:
/// WPBeginner's YouTube Share Overlay Buttons
function wpb_yt_buttons($atts) {
// Get the video ID from shortcode
extract( shortcode_atts( array(
'video' => ''
), $atts ) );
// Display video
$string = '<div id="video-container"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/' . $video . '" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe>';
// Add Facebook share button
$string .= '<ul class="share-video-overlay" id="share-video-overlay"><li class="facebook" id="facebook"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com/watch%3Fv%3D'. $video .'" target="_blank">
Facebook</a></li>';
// Add Tweet button
$string .= '<li class="twitter" id="twitter"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/share?&text=Check+this+video&url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D'. $video .'">Tweet</a></li></ul>';
// Close video container
$string .= '</div>';
// Return output
return $string;
}
// Add Shortcode
add_shortcode('wpb-yt', 'wpb_yt_buttons');
This code creates a shortcode that automatically adds twitter and facebook share links to your videos. These buttons are only visible when the user brings their mouse over the video. You can use it add any other social media channel as well.
To use this shortcode, all you will need to do is add the YouTube video ID in the shortcode like this:
[wpb-yt video="qzOOy1tWBCg"]
You can get the YouTube video ID from the URL string. Like this:
Now when you add a video, you will be able to see your YouTube video and plain text links to share the video on Facebook or Twitter. You will notice that these links are not styled at all.
So lets style these links to create buttons, so it looks a bit nicer. We will also hide these buttons and make them appear only when a user takes their mouse on the video container. To do this add the following CSS to your Child Theme‘s stylesheet.
#share-video-overlay {
position: relative;
right: 40px;
top: -190px;
list-style-type: none;
display: block;
opacity: 0;
filter: alpha(opacity=0);
-webkit-transition: opacity .4s, top .25s;
-moz-transition: opacity .4s, top .25s;
-o-transition: opacity .4s, top .25s;
transition: opacity .4s, top .25s;
z-index: 500;
}
#share-video-overlay:hover {
opacity:1;
filter:alpha(opacity=100);
}
.share-video-overlay li {
margin: 5px 0px 5px 0px;
}
#facebook {
color: #ffffff;
background-color: #3e5ea1;
width: 70px;
padding: 5px;
}
.facebook a:link, .facebook a:active, .facebook a:visited {
color:#fff;
text-decoration:none;
}
#twitter {
background-color:#00a6d4;
width: 70px;
padding: 5px;
}
.twitter a, .twitter a:link, .twitter a:active, .twitter a:visited, .twitter a:hover {
color:#FFF;
text-decoration:none;
}
That’s all. Now you should have share buttons overlay on your YouTube videos in WordPress.
Adding Share Buttons as Overlay for YouTube Video Playlists in WordPress
After publishing this article many of our readers asked, how this code can be modified to work for YouTube playlists as well as videos. If you embed YouTube videos as well as playlists on your WordPress site, then you should use this code instead.
/*
* WPBeginner's Share Overlay Buttons
* on YouTube Videos and Playlists
*/
function wpb_yt_buttons($atts) {
// Get the video and playlist ids from shortcode
extract( shortcode_atts( array(
'video' => '',
'playlist' => '',
), $atts ) );
// Check to see if a playlist id is provided with shortcode
if (!$playlist == '' ) :
// Display video playlist
$string = '<div id="video-container"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/' . $video . '?list=' . $playlist . '" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe>';
// Add Facebook button
$string .= '<ul class="share-video-overlay" id="share-video-overlay"><li class="facebook" id="facebook"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com/watch%3Fv%3D'. $video . '%26list%3D' . $playlist . '" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>';
// Add Twitter button
$string .= '<li class="twitter" id="twitter"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/share?&text=Check+this+video&url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D'. $video . '%26list%3D' . $playlist . '">Tweet</a></li></ul>';
// Close video container
$string .= '</div>';
// If no playlist ID is provided
else :
//Display video
$string .= '<div id="video-container"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/' . $video . '" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe>';
// Add Facebook button
$string .= '<ul class="share-video-overlay" id="share-video-overlay"><li class="facebook" id="facebook"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com/watch%3Fv%3D'. $video .'" target="_blank">
Facebook</a></li>';
// Add Twitter button
$string .= '<li class="twitter" id="twitter"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/share?&text=Check+this+video&url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D'. $video .'">Tweet</a></li></ul>';
// Close video container
$string .= '</div>';
endif;
// Return output
return $string;
}
// Add shortcode
add_shortcode('wpb-yt', 'wpb_yt_buttons');
Using the code above you can also add a playlist with overlaying share buttons. To display your playlist you will have to provide the video id and playlist id in the shortcode like this:
[wpb-yt video="exP9N3rIfV0" playlist="UUhA624rCabHAmd6lpkLOw7A"]
You can get your video and playlist IDs by visiting the playlist on YouTube and copying list ID from the URL, like this:
Adding WordPress Post Link in Share Button Overlay on YouTube Videos
After we published this article, some of our users asked that they would like the share buttons to share their WordPress post’s link instead of YouTube video link. To do that you need to replace the video URL in share buttons with the WordPress post’s permalink. Use this code in your functions.php or site-specific plugin:
/// WPBeginner's YouTube Share Overlay Buttons
function wpb_yt_buttons($atts) {
// Get the video ID from shortcode
extract( shortcode_atts( array(
'video' => ''
), $atts ) );
// Display video
$string = '<div id="video-container"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/' . $video . '" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe>';
// Get post permalink and encode URL
$permalink_encoded = urlencode(get_permalink());
// Add Facebook share button
$string .= '<ul class="share-video-overlay" id="share-video-overlay"><li class="facebook" id="facebook"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u='. $permalink_encoded .'" target="_blank">
Facebook</a></li>';
// Add Tweet button
$string .= '<li class="twitter" id="twitter"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/share?&text=Check+this+video&url='. $permalink_encoded .'">Tweet</a></li></ul>';
// Close video container
$string .= '</div>';
// Return output
return $string;
}
// Add Shortcode
add_shortcode('wpb-yt', 'wpb_yt_buttons');
Feel free to modify the CSS or the shortcode snippets to meet your needs. To further optimize your videos, you can make your YouTube videos responsive using FitVids jQuery plugin. You can also turn off related videos that appear at the end of the video. or even create featured images from YouTube video thumbnails.
We hope that this article helped you add custom share buttons as overlay on YouTube videos in WordPress. Let us know which social media channels you are planning to add on your videos by leaving a comment below.
“Most ways would require you to paste a bits of HTML code every time you add a video”
I’d like to learn this way…. how is it done?
Thanks
I’m after a different still image from a youtube video that I have on my site. The one the owner of the video has I don’t like and I’ve heard you can pick a image from the video time line to become your still image ones video ends. Since its not my video I need to beable to do this in the embed iframe code.
Is this possible and if so could you give me the code. Thank you
Hello,
this is an incredible tutorial. It’s possible to show share button at the end of the youtube video and how? Thanks in advance for your help.
Dave, we updated the article to include a method that will share your post link instead of youtube video. Follow the instructions in the section “Adding WordPress Post Link in Share Button Overlay on YouTube Videos”.
I was going to go back and edit my comment because I had a “D’oh” moment and noticeed I never activated the site plugin. I wasn’t able to edit because my comment needed to be approved.
When I did activate it my facebook and twitter share options didn’t overlay the video. They were below the video.
I don’t know, maybe I did something wrong in the process.
I like your site and will continue to come back for more great articles.
how to adjust the huge space on bottom after the video?
This is a great solution, but I have a weird problem. Some IDs works but others not.
For example, this ID works for me [wpb-yt video=”7vJdBec_B6A”] but this other not [wpb-yt video=”CYveDEem5VA”]
Hi guys, thanks for the tutorial.. I got this working in no time on my site.
But I’m using Yoast’s video seo plugin, and I noticed that it’s not recognizing youtube videos embedded with the shortcode.
Is there a way to make this happen? Perhaps a work-around where you don’t need to use shortcodes??
We didn’t try it with Yoast’s Video SEO plugin. We will see what we can do.
Thanks, I hope you guys can come up with a solution for this.
Hi everybody,
How can I add “Share Buttons as Overlay on YouTube Videos” with a Youtube embed inside the Revolution Slider?
In which php and css files should I paste the codes?
Thank your help is very appreciated!!
Mat
Hey there — really appreciate the post.
I’m trying to modify the functions.php snippet so the share/tweet buttons will refer to my site instead of the youtube.com site. Unfortunately I’m having all sorts of problems. Can you help or point me to somewhere that can help?? I’ve been messing with it for an hour with no progress.
Really glad you posted this. Its incredibly useful!!
Jay, we have updated the post and added a new snippet which shares the post link instead of youtube video. Hope this helps.
Please when i click on the link does not work. the buttons show up but when you click on it nothing happens
It is awesome and descriptive.
Farhan Shah
Does it work with all the themes? Like Jarvis theme? I couldn’t make it work..
You will probably need adjusting CSS. We can’t be sure about this working with all themes as there are thousands of themes.
I have created this plugin now 27 times and still it doesnt work at all! I really need this function, could you please explain this again and step by step. Please avoid to start with “just do..” because I am a real newbie and when I sit here I dont know anything.. I have already followed your functions.php tutorial and my site crashed completely. I under stand you are offering a great support here, awesome! Thumbs Up!! Super!!! But please understand that this is really frustrating to create and follow steps so many times and no result. This plugin does not appear in my wp install at all.
“just copy it in functions.php..” you know, where in functions.php?? on top where it starts with 1 or on the bottom where there are numbers 300 and so forth?? or in the middle somewhere? Thank you <3
at the bottom of your functions.php file
Martin we understand your frustration. Can you install other plugins on your site?
sure, no problem to install plugins. I have also fixed this myself in the end, but the result was just so so, its not looking very neat tbh. So I deleted it again. I was searching for other solutions but they dont seem to exist, everything is related to “making money” or “locking content” .. why would anyone like a page for locking it up? I really need this plugin and I don’t have any money to hire people. Please offer me some support via email, you could explain to me how I can style the whole thing so it looks better. Please Please Please! I would really appreciate this. Thank you <3
The same here. I tried just adding it to functions.php, then with site-specific plugin. Nothing. Nada. And I really would love it to work. Does it work on all themes?
Awesome code which I’ve adapted and implemented on a test page including Google+ too. I know the thrust isn’t CSS but just wanted to make the point that I think opacity 0 is a really bad idea as more and more browsing is done on touchscreen where there is no hover event and the buttons would never be seen. I would either forget opacity effects altogether or set an initial opacity at 0.5 or use media queries to target different devices with individual opacity settings.
Can this be done with the IMG attribute as well?
Awesome Trick
This is very helpful. It appears that the share buttons in this example actually share the YouTube video link, rather than the page containing the embeded video like the UpWorthy button overlays do. How would one alter the code to grab the page permalink rather than the youtube link?
I just wasted 30 minutes of my life. I did everything the tutorial said to do and it just showed a short code on my post. But even if it did work, according to the comment I am replying to, it would have driven traffic to youtube and not my site.
Thank you. I’m excited to try this out and let you the results.
It’s really good and help us to my work….
This is good. What about using a playlist ID in the short code?
Most people use static videos on posts but on home pages we use playlists.
How could this code be modified to add the share buttons over playlist videos?
I.e. to work with the YouTube Channel Gallery plugin.
BTW – UNDER the code your text says this: “The following code creates a shortcode that automatically adds twitter and facebook buttons to your videos.”
Shouldn’t that say “…PRECEDING code…”?
Chris we have updated the article, you can now use it with playlists as well.
Nice one. I am generally averse to changing anything at the code level. This seems like a straightforward plugin candidate. Are you sure there is no plugin?
This code can be used in a site-specific plugin.
This looks great. Could you give a very simple step by step instruction on how to install it – perhaps on YouTube?
This is awsome
Great article!
How do you add this shortcode now to the html shortcode editor that appears on the tinymce bar?
Pretty cool code. Looking forward to playing around with it, and adding to my new site. Thanks!
Is there a way to utilize a plugin to add this code so we don’t screw things up if we’re not use to working under the hood? Thanks for this, I have seen things like this before and really wanted to know how to do it.
Yes you can add this to a site-specific plugin.
Thank you for sharing this, is an elegant solution.
Do you think it might work for YouTube Playlists as well, with the “PLxxxetc” syntax?
Basically you can modify the shortcode to output any kind of embed and then use CSS to position share buttons on that embed. So yes, it should work.
Would there be any way to do this with SoundCloud players as well?
Great article by the way.
Yes it should work with soundcloud embeds, but you will have to add them in the shortcode and then use css for proper positioning.
This is quite a cool thing to do on your Youtube videos: sharing buttons. I also like those floating buttons on images added by FooBox
This is awesome, thank you!
Do you think it could be adjusted to work with playlists as well as individual videos?