Adding a YouTube/YouTube Shorts or Vimeo video into your email

Learn how to add videos to your Flodesk emails using the Video block—and what to do if you want to include private videos.

Short answer: yes and no.

Most major email clients—including Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo—do not support native video playback inside emails.

That means:

• Embedded video files (like MP4s) won’t play reliably

• Audio, playback controls, and full video support aren’t available

• This limitation exists across all email platforms, not just Flodesk

The closest alternative is an animated GIF, which can visually resemble a video but doesn’t include sound or playback controls.

While videos can’t play directly inside emails, you can add a clickable video preview.

When subscribers click it:

• They’re taken to the hosted video page

• The video plays normally with sound and controls

Flodesk makes this easy with the Video block.

• Public YouTube videos → Supported

• Public Vimeo videos → Supported

• Public YouTube Shorts → Supported

• Private YouTube or Vimeo videos → Not supported

If your video is private, jump to "Adding Private Videos" below.

Step 1. Add a Video block to your email

Step 2. Under the Video tab, paste a public YouTube or Vimeo link into the designated area. You can also add YouTube Shorts links.

Make sure to add the link starting with https:// and do not use "shortened" links.

For example, in the case of a YouTube video, don't add the links this way (which are shortened links): "https://youtu.be/...." Instead, copy the link from your browser, which would look like this "https://www.youtube.com/..."

Flodesk will then automatically pull the video's preview image into the email for you, similar to the example below.

You can also assign link actions to the URL so that when subscribers click the video to watch it, they can be

• Added to one or multiple segments

• Removed from one or multiple segments

• Added to one or multiple workflows

• Removed from one or multiple workflows

• Tagged with a custom field

The video block has several options to customize a play button to match your brand and your email's aesthetic.

The preview image also has a title box that allows you to customize the video's title in great detail, including positioning, typography settings, colors, alignment, and custom/brand fonts.

Note: under the Block settings, you can turn off the Title if you don't want to show one for your video preview.

When a subscriber clicks the play button:

• They’re redirected to the original YouTube or Vimeo page

• The video plays normally with full audio and controls
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If your YouTube/Vimeo video is private, consider the following workaround: 👇🏻

• Create a static image or a GIF image of your private video with a play button on it. This can alert your readers that it will redirect them to a video.

• Upload this image to an Image block and link it to your private YouTube/Vimeo.
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How to add videos to your email?
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If you have a public YouTube/YouTube Shorts or Vimeo video, add the video link (URL) directly to the Video block.
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If you need to keep the video private, then add an image with a play button to an Image block that links to your video on YouTube or Vimeo.