Vital Video Block

Vital Video is a WordPress block plugin designed to improve Core Web Vitals performance when displaying YouTube videos.

Instead of traditional embedding, it provides a lightweight, performance-optimized solution that first loads a clickable video thumbnail.

The Vital Video Block doesn’t play videos in the WordPress editor. It’s designed to prioritize performance and user experience on your frontend. To test video behavior, simply preview your post or page.

Features

• Performance-first YouTube video display.
• Automatic video thumbnail and title retrieval.
• WebP image support for faster image loading.
• Customizable aspect ratios (4:3 and 16:9).
• Displays the video title in the image.
• Multiple thumbnail quality options.
• Minimal initial page load impact.
• Option to disable WebP images if unavailable.
• Advanced video playback controls.
• Uses YouTube’s no-cookie thumbnail service.
• Respects modern browser autoplay policies.
• Alt text matches the video title.
• Thumbnail dimensions set based on selected image size:
  • HQ (480×320): Default size
  • SD (640×480): Standard size
  • MAX (1280×720): Highest available resolution

Vital Video Settings

• Aspect Ratio: Choose between 16:9 and 4:3.
• Mute Toggle: Control video playback behavior.
• Thumbnail Quality: Select from High, Standard, or Maximum resolution.
• Disable WebP: Turn off WebP usage if unavailable.

Mute Toggle

The Mute Toggle feature is designed primarily for mobile devices, adhering to browser autoplay policies.

Mute Toggle Off (Sound On):

Videos require two clicks to start playing:

1. The first click loads the video.
2. The second click begins playback. Ideal for maintaining user control and preventing unexpected audio.

Mute Toggle On (Sound Off):

• Videos play with a single click.
• Automatically starts muted.
• Perfect for situations where immediate video playback is desired.
• Complies with browser autoplay restrictions.

Disable WebP Images

• WebP is enabled by default. Most thumbnails will use the WebP format.
• However, if you encounter a dummy placeholder image, try selecting a different thumbnail size to see if another WebP version exists.
• If no WebP images are available, you can enable the “Disable WebP Images” option as a last resort. This – will use fallback formats like JPG instead.

Only use “Disable WebP Images” when absolutely necessary!

External Services

This plugin connects to YouTube’s services to embed videos and retrieve video information:

YouTube Video Service:

• The plugin connects to YouTube’s embed service (youtube-nocookie.com) to display videos
• When a video is played, it loads the video player from YouTube’s servers
• YouTube’s terms of service: https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms
• YouTube’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

YouTube oEmbed API:

• Used to fetch video titles when adding videos to your content
• Sends the YouTube video ID to retrieve the video title
• API documentation: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos

YouTube Thumbnail Service:

• Retrieves video thumbnail images from i.ytimg.com
• Only loads thumbnails for videos you’ve embedded
• No personal data is sent to this service

Note: This plugin uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode by default, which helps protect your visitors’ privacy by not setting cookies until the video is played.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! You can support Vital Video in various ways:

• Write about the plugin on your blog or share it on social media.
• Translate the plugin into your language using your WordPress.org account.
• Review the plugin here on WordPress.org.