# Let viewers share videos Viewers ask for a YouTube video with a channel points reward or bits, you, your editors or a moderator approve it on the Media share page, and it plays on your overlay. Updated 29 September 2026 ## What you can do Media share lets viewers ask for a YouTube video to watch together on stream. A viewer redeems your **Share a video** channel points reward with a link, or cheers 500 bits with a link in the message, and the video waits on your **Media share** page. Nothing plays until you, your editors or a moderator press **Play**; approved videos then play one at a time on the **Media share player** layer of your overlay. ## Before you start - The **Media share** pack has the four flows: one takes requests with channel points, one takes them with bits, one refunds skipped points requests, and one lets moderators skip with `!skipvideo`. It also brings the overlay with the player on it. - To play videos on stream you need an overlay in OBS. [Add an overlay to OBS](https://bloopbot.com/docs/widgets-in-obs) shows how to add one as a Browser Source. - Channel points rewards and bits need Twitch Affiliate or Partner. ## Add the pack and its reward 1. Open **Flows**, press **Add**, and choose the **Media share** pack. 2. Its review asks about the **Share a video** reward. Leave **Make it for me** chosen, and Bloopbot creates it on Twitch: 1,000 points, with a box where the viewer pastes a link (_Paste a YouTube link_). It arrives switched off; switch it on in Twitch's channel points settings when you are ready. Change its cost there too. 3. Add the flows. They arrive paused; switch on **Share a video with points** and **Refund skipped video requests**. The pack also brings a **Media share** overlay with the player on it ([Put the player on your overlay](https://bloopbot.com/docs/media-share#player)). When a viewer redeems **Share a video** with a link, the video is checked and waits on your Media share page, and chat hears _Thanks PixelPal, your video is waiting for approval._ When it is turned down — too long, not allowed outside YouTube, already waiting — chat hears why, such as _PixelPal: That video is longer than 5 minutes._, and Bloopbot refunds their points if it made the reward (see the note on refunds below). The refund is tried even if Twitch drops chat's reply. ![The Share a video with points flow on the flow canvas: On a reward redeemed for Share a video, Request a video with its Queued, Refused, No link and error outputs, a thank-you chat message on Queued, and on Refused or No link a chat message with the reason followed by Fulfil or refund reward, which cancels and refunds the points.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/media-share-flow.jpg) _Share a video with points: the reward, Request a video, a thank-you, or why not and a refund._ Viewers can paste a `youtube.com/watch` link, a `youtu.be` link, a Shorts link, an embed link (`youtube.com/embed/…` or `youtube-nocookie.com/embed/…`), or the video's 11-character id. If a viewer pastes more than a link, the first link counts, and a word, emoji or full stop stuck to the end of it is ignored. The checks live on the **Request a video** step in the flow: open it to change **Max length** (5 minutes to start), **Min views** (1,000), **Allow music** (off) or add **Blocked words**. **Refunds only work for a reward Bloopbot created.** Twitch only lets Bloopbot give points back for a reward Bloopbot made, so if you pick a reward of your own instead of **Make it for me**, a turned-down or skipped request keeps the viewer's points. If you want refunds, choose **Make it for me**, or create the reward again that way. ## Take bits requests too Switch on **Cheer bits to share a video**. A cheer of 500 bits or more with a YouTube link in the message asks for that video, and it waits on the page like any other. A cheer with no link passes quietly. Change the amount on the flow's **Bits cheered** trigger. **Bits can't be refunded.** A bits request that is turned down, skipped or removed keeps its bits, and chat says so when one is turned down. The pack's description says it too, so say it on your stream before viewers cheer for a video. ## Approve videos on the Media share page 1. In the dashboard sidebar, open **Run → Media share**. You, your editors and the moderators you have [ticked in on Team](https://bloopbot.com/docs/editors#tick) can use the page, and each can do everything on it; only you and your editors see the button that adds the **Media share** pack. 2. **Waiting** lists every request with its title, channel, length, who asked, how they paid and when. The open-in-new icon (**Open on YouTube**) opens the video in a new tab so you can check it first. The page never shows a thumbnail or plays a video itself. 3. Press the play icon (**Play**) to approve a video. It joins **Up next**, and plays as soon as nothing else is playing. The bin icon (**Remove**) turns a request down. 4. In **Up next**, the arrows move a video up or down the play order, and the bin icon takes it out. 5. **Now playing** shows the video on stream, who asked for it, how they paid, and how far in it is. **Skip** ends the video the page shows and plays the next; if that video has already ended by the time you press it, nothing is skipped, so two people pressing **Skip** at once end one video, not two. `!skipvideo` in chat skips whatever is playing at that moment. **Pause** lets the current video finish and holds the rest; **Resume** carries on. 6. **History** keeps the last 7 days: what played, what was skipped or removed, and what failed to play. ![The Media share page: Now playing shows How to fold a paper crane requested by PixelPal with points, 0:00 of 3:34, with Skip; Up next holds one video with move up, move down, Open on YouTube and Remove buttons; Waiting holds one from a cheer of 500 bits with Open on YouTube, Play and Remove buttons; History is empty. No thumbnails.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/media-share-page.jpg) _The Media share page: a video playing, one up next, one waiting from a cheer of 500 bits._ The page refreshes on its own every few seconds. At most 50 requests can wait at once; the 51st is turned down with _The request queue is full_. ## Put the player on your overlay The **Media share** pack brings a **Media share** overlay with one player on it, at the right edge. In the pack's **Set it up**, press **Copy URL** and paste it into a Browser source in OBS ([Add an overlay to OBS](https://bloopbot.com/docs/widgets-in-obs)); it shows nothing until a video plays, so it can sit on top of any scene. To put the player on an overlay you already use instead: 1. Open **Overlays**, open the overlay you use in OBS, and choose **Add** at the top of the left panel. 2. Under **Media**, open **Media share player** and choose **Add**. It lands in the middle of the canvas as a dashed card at the player's size. Studio never plays a real video; the card is where it will be. 3. Drag it where you want it, and set **Player width** (480 to 1920 pixels; the height follows at 16:9). **Show requester** puts _Requested by_ and the viewer's name above the player; **Show title** puts the video's title below it. **Volume** sets how loud videos play, from 0 to 100. 4. Choose **Publish**. ![A Media share player selected in Studio: the canvas shows its dashed placeholder card reading Approved videos play here, with Requested by PixelPal above and a placeholder line below, and the Content tab shows Player width 854, Show requester, Show title, Volume 60 and Scale fixed at 1 with the reason.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/media-share-player.jpg) _The Media share player on the canvas, and its settings with Scale fixed at 1._ **Scale** shows 1 and can't be changed, and the layer has no resize or rotate handles: YouTube's rules say its player is shown whole — never scaled, covered, hidden while it plays or smaller than 480 by 270. Keep other layers off it, and leave crop and filters off the Browser Source in OBS. Nothing shows between videos. Only one Media share player plays at a time, even if several of your overlays have one, so a video never plays twice over itself. The first one open in OBS plays; any other shows _Playing in another source_. If that one closes, another takes over and starts the current video again from the beginning. Refreshing the source that plays moves on to the next video. Hiding the player on a published overlay, with its eye in Studio or a visibility rule, stops the video; showing it again starts that video from the beginning. **Hear the videos in OBS.** The video's sound is part of the overlay's Browser Source. For your viewers to hear it, tick **Control audio via OBS** in that Browser Source's properties. OBS then mixes the source's sound into your stream and recording. With that ticked, you won't hear the video yourself until OBS monitors it: in OBS, open **Advanced Audio Properties** from the Audio Mixer's gear or three-dot menu (or from **Edit → Advanced Audio Properties**), find the overlay's Browser Source, and set its **Audio Monitoring** to **Monitor and Output**. With **Control audio via OBS** off, which is OBS's default, the page's sound goes to your computer's own audio output instead, and your viewers only hear it if OBS also captures your Desktop Audio. ## What you're responsible for Every video that plays is on your stream, so you are responsible for it. Twitch's rules on music and copyright apply to it as they do to anything else you show. - Music videos are the usual cause of copyright strikes on Twitch. That's why **Allow music** is off: YouTube's Music category and music.youtube.com links are turned down unless you switch it on. - Every request waits for you, your editors or a moderator. Open a video with **Open on YouTube** before you press **Play** if you aren't sure what it is. - Viewers can only share videos their owners allow to be played outside YouTube, and never age-restricted videos, livestreams or premieres. ## Build your own video request flows Two steps and one trigger in the node library, under **Media share**, do everything the pack does: - **Request a video** — checks the YouTube video in **Link** and puts it on your Media share page to wait for approval. `$(input)` is what a viewer typed with a reward, `$(message)` a cheer’s message, and the first YouTube link in it counts. Its rules are **Max length** (30 to 1800 seconds, 300 to start), **Min views** (0 to 10,000,000, 1,000 to start), **Allow music** (off to start) and **Blocked words** (a comma list matched against the title, whatever its capitals). It leaves by **Queued**, by **Refused** with the reason in `$(from..reason)` — such as _That video is longer than 5 minutes_ — or by **No link** when the text has no YouTube link at all. - **Skip the video** — skips the video playing, and the next approved one plays. It leaves by **Skipped**, or **Nothing playing**. And one trigger: - **Video request ended** — runs when a request ends: it played, was skipped or removed, or failed to play. **Outcome** picks which (Skipped and Removed to start) and **Paid with** picks channel points, bits or anything else. Its tokens are `$(title)`, `$(requester)`, `$(outcome)`, `$(source)` and `$(bits)`. A request paid with channel points carries its redemption, so **Fulfil or refund reward** after it can give the viewer their points back when Bloopbot made the reward. Any flow can read media share without a step: `$(data.mediashare.current_title)` is the video playing, `$(data.mediashare.current_requester)` who asked for it, and `$(data.mediashare.waiting)` and `$(data.mediashare.approved)` how many wait. The pack also has **!skipvideo skips the video**: moderators and you type `!skipvideo` in chat to skip what plays. ## Try it without going live 1. In the overlay editor, open **Simulate** and choose **Queue a test video**. A Creative Commons short film from _Test viewer_ joins **Waiting** on your Media share page. 2. With the overlay open in OBS, press **Play** on it on the Media share page. It plays in OBS, with its sound. 3. Press **Skip** to end it. The canvas in Studio shows the placeholder card the whole time; only OBS plays the video. ## Troubleshooting - **Chat says _Video requests aren't available on this channel yet_, and the page says the same.** Video requests can't be checked on your channel yet. Nothing you set changes that. - **Chat says _Video requests aren't available right now_.** YouTube didn't answer the check, or the request couldn't be saved. Try again in a few minutes. The request ends as turned down, so a points request is refunded when Bloopbot made the reward. - **A request is turned down.** Chat says why: too long for your **Max length**, too few views for your **Min views**, a music video while **Allow music** is off, a blocked word in its title, not allowed outside YouTube, age-restricted, a livestream or premiere, already waiting, or 50 requests already waiting. - **The page says _No Media share player is open_.** Approved videos wait until an overlay with a Media share player is open in OBS; then the next one starts there. - **An overlay shows _Playing in another source_.** Another Browser Source with a Media share player is playing. Remove the player from the overlays you don't want to play, or close them in OBS. - **A video is marked _Failed to play_ in History.** Its owner doesn't allow it to be played outside YouTube, or YouTube stopped it. With points, the viewer gets their points back when Bloopbot made the reward. - **Points don't come back.** Twitch only lets Bloopbot refund a reward Bloopbot created: choose **Make it for me** when you add the pack, or create the reward again that way. - **You hear the video but viewers don't, or the other way round.** See [Hear the videos in OBS](https://bloopbot.com/docs/media-share#player): **Control audio via OBS** and **Monitor and Output** decide who hears what. - **Nothing happens when a viewer types !skipvideo.** Only moderators and you can use it.