Animated Thumbnails bring motion previews to your video experiences. When viewers hover over or scroll past a video tile, a short, silent clip plays automatically so audiences can quickly gauge relevance and decide to watch. The result: faster content discovery, higher confidence to click, and a more modern, engaging video surface across homepages, galleries, and libraries.
Why It Matters
Static thumbnails make audiences guess. Animated Thumbnails replace guesswork with an authentic glimpse of the actual content tone, pacing, and subject right where decisions happen. For media companies, that means improved browsing and view-through across feeds and carousels. For enterprise teams, it means more engagement with product demos, town halls, and training. Customers who use motion previews typically see increased click-through to play, because curiosity is sparked in the moment of discovery.
How it works
- Add Animated Thumbnails to any video experience.
- On hover or as tiles enter the viewport, a lightweight, muted preview plays in place looping seamlessly.
- It’s performance-first: previews are delivered efficiently alongside standard playback metadata for minimal page impact.
- You control the experience: customize start time, end time, duration, and hover delay to match your design and audience behavior.
- Content controls are respected: previews are derived from permitted sources and work safely alongside SSAI, DRM, and custom monetization setups.
Use Cases
- Media homepages & channels: Turn browsing into watching. Use motion to tease episodic series, highlights, or trending clips so fans sample before committing.
- Marketing sites & product hubs: Let prospects preview demos or testimonials instantly reducing friction and encouraging the click to full playback.
- Internal video libraries: Help employees scan training modules and leadership updates more efficiently by surfacing the tone and speaker in a glance.
The Big Picture
Animated Thumbnails are part of our ongoing push to marry delightful UX with measurable outcomes. They showcase Brightcove’s product focus on solving real customer problems, reducing production effort, modernizing video discovery, and driving engagement where it counts. This is one of many features shipping rapidly to help you get more value from every video view.
What’s Next
We’re expanding customization options and exploring AI-powered “smart previews” that automatically select the most representative or engaging clip for each video. Expect updates as we learn from your use cases and continue to raise the bar for video discovery and performance.
Try it today!
Animated Thumbnails are available today. Swap in the visuals above and share with your teams or reach out to your Brightcove representative for rollout tips and best practices.
