Qaiyo Social Video Embed

Description

Qaiyo Social Video Embed is a modern, multi-platform video embed plugin with TikTok, YouTube (Shorts + regular videos) and Vimeo support. Mix videos from different platforms together in a single gallery, or automatically import the latest videos from a YouTube channel.

Key features:

  • Multi-platform — TikTok, YouTube and Vimeo in one plugin.
  • Mixed galleries — Videos from different platforms together in one grid, carousel or list view.
  • Gutenberg block — Insert galleries from the editor with a live preview, no shortcodes needed.
  • YouTube channel feed import — Paste a channel URL and automatically show the latest N videos or Shorts (no API key required).
  • Lightbox / modal playback — Optionally open videos in a fullscreen modal instead of inline.
  • Responsive column breakpoints — Separate column counts for desktop, tablet and mobile.
  • High-resolution thumbnails — Automatic use of maxresdefault.jpg (1280×720).
  • Automatic aspect ratio detection — 9:16 (Shorts/TikTok), 16:9 (regular YouTube).
  • Lazy load + click-to-play — The iframe only loads on click, keeping pages fast.
  • Customizable play button — Background and icon color configurable in the admin.
  • oEmbed cache — Transient caching with adjustable duration.
  • YouTube nocookie support — GDPR-friendly privacy-enhanced mode.
  • 4 display modes — single, grid, carousel, list.
  • Accessible — ARIA labels and keyboard navigation.
  • Dark mode and print styles.
  • Extensible — Provider pattern, write your own provider.
  • Translation ready — Fully internationalized; translations are provided through translate.wordpress.org.
  • Translation plugin compatible — Works with WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress and other translation plugins.
  • WordPress standards — Nonce verification, capability checks, input sanitization, escaped output.

YouTube channel feed

Paste the channel’s ID-based URL (you can copy it from the channel’s About/Share panel or from a video’s channel link):

  • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx — the latest videos
  • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/shorts — the latest uploads shown vertically (9:16)
  • https://www.youtube.com/user/legacyname — legacy username channels are also supported

The plugin reads YouTube’s official public RSS feed (feeds/videos.xml) for that channel — no API key needed and no page scraping. Handle URLs (/@name) and custom URLs (/c/name) require the YouTube Data API; that (and exact Shorts filtering) is available in the Pro add-on.

External services

This plugin embeds videos hosted on third-party platforms. It therefore contacts those platforms in two different ways, described below.

1. Server-side requests (made by your site, from wp-admin or while rendering a page)

These resolve the metadata of the videos you add. Only the video or channel URL that you enter is sent; the responses are cached. No visitor data is involved.

  • YouTube (Google) — www.youtube.com: oEmbed endpoint (/oembed) for individual videos, and the official public RSS feed (/feeds/videos.xml) for channel feeds, using the channel ID or legacy username contained in the URL you provide.
  • Vimeo — vimeo.com: oEmbed endpoint (/api/oembed.json) for individual videos.
  • TikTok — www.tiktok.com: oEmbed endpoint (/oembed) for individual videos.
  • WordPress.org — api.wordpress.org: on the plugin’s “Discover Qaiyo” screen only, the standard WordPress plugin API (plugins_api) is queried to list this author’s free plugins. No data about your site is sent beyond the standard API query.

2. Requests made by your visitors’ browsers (when a page with the gallery is viewed)

Video thumbnails and the video players themselves are loaded directly from the platforms. This means your visitors’ browsers contact those platforms, and — as with any embedded video — the platform receives the visitor’s IP address, user agent and referring page, and may set cookies.

  • Thumbnail images — i.ytimg.com (YouTube), plus Vimeo’s and TikTok’s own image CDNs.
  • Video players (loaded only after the visitor clicks play) — www.youtube.com or www.youtube-nocookie.com (YouTube), player.vimeo.com (Vimeo), www.tiktok.com (TikTok).

To reduce this, the plugin uses click-to-play (nothing from the player is loaded until the visitor clicks), offers YouTube’s privacy-enhanced youtube-nocookie.com mode, and requests Vimeo’s Do Not Track (dnt=1) parameter.

This functionality is required for the plugin to display embedded videos. Provider terms and privacy policies:
* YouTube (Google): https://www.youtube.com/t/terms — https://policies.google.com/privacy
* Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/terms — https://vimeo.com/privacy
* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/legal/terms-of-service — https://www.tiktok.com/legal/privacy-policy
* WordPress.org: https://wordpress.org/about/terms/ — https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/

Installation

  1. Upload the qaiyo-social-video-embed folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
  2. Activate the plugin from the WordPress admin Plugins page.
  3. Navigate to Social Video Embed in the admin sidebar to configure appearance, play button, thumbnails and caching.
  4. Place a shortcode anywhere — page, post, Bricks, Gutenberg.

FAQ

How do I embed a single video?

[qsve_video url=”https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ”]

This also works with TikTok and YouTube Shorts URLs.

How do I create a mixed gallery?

[qsve_video mode=”grid” columns=”3″ urls=”tiktok-url|youtube-url|shorts-url”]

Separate URLs with the | character.

How do I import a YouTube channel feed?

[qsve_video channel=”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/shorts” limit=”6″]

Use the channel’s ID-based URL (/channel/UC...). Add /shorts to show the latest uploads vertically (9:16).

Is there a block editor (Gutenberg) block?

Yes. Add the “Qaiyo Social Video Embed” block in the editor. It exposes the same options (URLs, mode, columns, channel, lightbox, etc.) with a live preview — no shortcodes required.

How do I open videos in a lightbox?

Enable “Open videos in a lightbox” in the settings, toggle it in the block, or add playback="lightbox" to any shortcode.

Does Vimeo work?

Yes. Paste a Vimeo URL (e.g. https://vimeo.com/76979871) into the urls attribute or the block. Vimeo channel/showcase import is not available.

Does TikTok channel import work?

No. TikTok does not provide a public, free API for querying user feeds, so TikTok videos must be added individually via the urls attribute.

Do I need a YouTube API key?

No. The plugin uses public oEmbed and RSS endpoints, so no API key is required.

Which shortcodes are available?

[qsve_video], [qsve_tiktok] (TikTok only) and [qsve_youtube] (YouTube only).

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“Qaiyo Social Video Embed” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.0.0

  • First release under the Qaiyo brand.
  • TikTok, YouTube (Shorts + regular) and Vimeo support, mixed galleries and YouTube channel feed import.
  • Gutenberg block with live preview.
  • Lightbox / modal playback option.
  • Responsive column breakpoints (desktop / tablet / mobile).
  • Top-level Qaiyo admin menu with its own brand separator.
  • Admin UI in the Qaiyo design system (purple brand accent).
  • English source language; fully translatable via translate.wordpress.org.
  • [qsve_video], [qsve_tiktok], [qsve_youtube] shortcodes.