These release notes provide information on new features, enhancements, bug fixes, and resolved escalations completed in every major, minor, and patch release for the YouTube card.

  • Category Type: Feed
  • Content Category Type: Culture & Values
  • Tags: Video, Media
Important
For each release, the updates are pushed to the card template in the Library. Cards created prior to the latest release will not receive the latest updates. To get the latest feature or bug fix for this card, the card must be recreated with the latest template.

30 Nov 2023, Thursday

YouTube 2.2.6

FEATURE UPDATES

YouTube Streaming Improvements

To determine whether the live-stream video is still in progress, or has ended, the YouTube Service communicates with the YouTube API. This however consumes the allocated API calls limit provided by YouTube. By transitioning to the YouTube iFrame SDK detection, the number of calls to the YouTube API is reduced, optimizing resource usage.

To ensure the card is always configured to be streaming, a new device property, “Network.Streaming = true” is introduced to enable the Appspace App to load the YouTube card using the streaming protocol, rather than to be loaded directly from Appspace.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-8742 – Error 500 occurs when adding a YouTube link to the YouTube card.
  • AE-9754 – Unable to display YouTube cards on BrightSign devices.

22 Nov 2022, Tuesday

YouTube 2.2.5

FEATURE UPDATES

Youtube Card Improvements
  • The blank screen is expected in the Advanced Channel when the user clicks one layout (via the media zone action) to transition to another layout with the YouTube card.
  • The blank screen happens because the YouTube card takes time to retrieve information from YouTube. After retrieving the information, the YouTube card will display the content (video) based on the URL entered by the user.

FIXED BUGS

  • YT-30 – The BrightSign XD1033 device is unable to playback the YouTube feed for the first loop and displays a black screen for all subsequent loops.
  • YT-31 – A white blank screen shows when a YouTube card’s feed reaches the end for around two seconds before switching on to the next item of content.

23 July 2021, Friday

YouTube 2.2.2

FEATURE UPDATES

YouTube Embedded URL Update

Due to a recent change in how YouTube processes its embedded URLs for videos and playlists, existing YouTube cards may fail to load or display YouTube videos, while displaying the “Video Unavailable” error message.

Appspace is aware and has fixed this issue in the latest YouTube Card 2.2.2, and recommends customers experiencing issues with their existing YouTube cards, to recreate and configure their YouTube card content using the latest version, as existing cards will not be automatically updated once created.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-7065 – Unable to load YouTube video on YouTube card due to an embedded URL issue.

8 Apr 2021, Thursday

YouTube 2.2.1

FEATURE UPDATES

YouTube Native Player Compliance

To conform to YouTube’s developer policies, we have unblocked all control buttons displayed on the YouTube native player, as per YouTube’s Terms of Service (https://www.youtube.com/t/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) on the YouTube card.

3 Mar 2021, Wednesday

YouTube 2.2

FEATURE UPDATES

YouTube Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

To conform to YouTube’s developer policies, we are including links to YouTube’s Terms of Service (https://www.youtube.com/t/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) on the YouTube card.

29 Jan 2021, Friday

YouTube 2.1

FEATURE UPDATES

Updated Card Theme

The following updates have been made to the card theme:

  • The card theme has been updated in the Library with a new design, improving card standardization.
  • The card base theme will not be generated during deployment, as the BaseCardTemplate property has been set to false in the manifest.json file in the card template.
  • The default fonts have been updated to the following:
    • Header text = Poppin font, previously Monserrat.
    • Body text = Roboto font, previously Lato.
  • The card template has been assigned to use the “Culture and Values” as the default content category.
Introducing Card Content Categories

With the introduction of Content Categories in Appspace 8.0 ac.22, all card themes will be assigned a default content category, allowing organizations to create content, build channels, and target messaging according to workplace communications best practices and internal communication goals.

These content categories can be changed during card creation by the Publisher or Author, as the card theme has been assigned a content category based on the messaging focus. These content categories are defined as follows:

  • Culture & Values – Content that promotes company values and affects the employee experience, to help customers drive company values throughout their organization.
  • Goals & Performance – content that showcases both long- and short-term goals and measurements of performance, to create shared ownership of company goals and drive employee performance.
  • Productivity & Engagement – content with information that keeps the company running, day-to-day, facilitating organizational productivity.
  • Safety & Compliance – content with information that supports employee safety and ensures company compliance with regulatory requirements, to help create a safe environment and promote safe behavior amongst employees.

Users will also be able to view the Content Category for every piece of content within a channel playlist. However, cards created prior to this release will not contain a content category, and will be considered as “Unassigned”.

21 Sept 2020, Monday

YouTube 2.0

FEATURE UPDATES

An updated YouTube card with improved features and support for playing YouTube playlists and live streams.

New Features

The YouTube card v 2.0 comes with the following features and improvements:

  • Ability to add and search for YouTube videos, playlists, and live video stream URLs, within the card.
  • Support for YouTube video subtitle configuration, which also allows for the subtitle language to be set via a device property.
  • Support for the following keyboard controls during playback:
    • Space = Start/Stop
    • Right arrow = Fast Forward (1o sec)
    • Right arrow = Rewind (1o sec)
    • Up arrow = Volume Increase (+10%)
    • Down arrow = Volume Decrease (-10%)
    • M = Mute On/Off
  • Support for enabling or disabling audio for video.

17 July 2020, Friday

YouTube 1.5.1

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-6111 – The on-screen keyboard does not display on BrightSign devices with touch screen TVs running the YouTube Card in a playlist channel or an advanced channel.

8 July 2020, Wednesday

YouTube 1.5

FEATURE UPDATES

The YouTube card content creation workflow and card editing user interface has been updated and streamlined in conjunction with the release of the completely redesigned Library module in Appspace 8.0.

Redesigned Card Editor

The card editor has been updated with a new UI and workflow, which groups key functions and features into tabs and sections for improved user experience, such as:

  • Preview tab – This tab appears only after the content is saved and the editor window is opened. Preview options include ResponsiveResponsive 16:92K4KTabletPhone, or Custom.
  • Edit tab – Configure the card layout, message title and summary, logo, background and a featured media/image. Also, depending on card or template type, you may see these additional sections:
    • Design section – Oncludes customized design options for each card type, which includes color palette, background, logo, and style selection options.
    • Configuration section – Includes customized configuration options for each card type, such as chart options.
  • Article tab – Write the content article, caption, and include a referral link if any.
  • Schedule tab – Here you add the content directly to any existing channel, and configure its playback schedule and display properties.
  • Settings tab – In this tab you may add a name for this card, configure its expiry date, add tags, and add a thumbnail image.

New Category and Tags

When creating a card, you now have the option to filter results based on tags and card template categories which are based on card types such as Messaging, Data, Services, Feeds, and Legacy content – to easily find what you need from a huge list of templates available.

28 Apr 2020, Tuesday

YouTube 1.4.5

FEATURE UPDATES

Support for Natural Duration on YouTube Card

This improvement allows YouTube videos to play till the end, before switching to the next content on the channel playlist, without user intervention.

Previously, users were required to set the card duration on the channel playlist to match the YouTube video duration to ensure content is switched only after the video has ended. This manual process of setting the duration at times causes Appspace App to end the YouTube video a couple of seconds earlier or later.

FIXED BUGS

  • CT-1919 – Unable to view YouTube video in channel preview.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-5955 – Audio unavailable when displaying YouTube Live.

21 Feb 2020, Friday

YouTube 1.4.4

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-5792 – When one YouTube card is added to a playlist channel, and the channel is set to loop, the audio does not play on alternate loops, on BrightSign devices.

4 Sept 2019, Wednesday

YouTube 1.4.3

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-5395 – Audio does not play during video playback, when running on Appspace App for PWA on Chrome web browsers.
  • AE-5487 – YouTube card does not load on Appspace App for Chrome OS.

16 April 2019, Tuesday

YouTube 1.4.2

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

  • AE-5068 – Audio on YouTube card is muted by default, when played on BrightSign devices.

Supported Devices

Device / Operating System
  • Android
  • BrightSign
  • ChromeOS
  • Cisco Webex and Collaboration Endpoints (CE) (Signage Only)
  • iAdea
  • iOS
  • LG WebOS
  • macOS
  • MediaVue
  • Mersive
  • Samsung SSP / Tizen
  • Universal Windows Platform (UWP)
  • Windows

Please refer to our Supported Appspace Cards article for more information.

Technical Limitations & Workaround

Audio Issues

When the audio does not play during YouTube video playback on the YouTube card, may be due to the policy settings on web browsers, where audio is blocked during video playback.

We recommend setting the autoplay policy to allow audio when using the following browsers:

Chrome
For enterprise users, would require the IT Administrator to set the policy to always allow autoplay with audio.

More information on how to do this here: https://dev.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#AutoplayAllowed (mass deployment policy)

For individual users, as the autoplay-policy flag had been removed from Chrome 76, users would be required to set the autoplay-policy flag via program arguments.

More information on how to do this here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57455849/chrome-autoplay-policy-chrome-76

Safari
Navigate to Safari > Preferences > Websites tab. Ensure the “Auto-Play” option is set to “Allow All Auto-Play”.

More information on how to do this here: https://support.apple.com/en-my/guide/safari/ibrw29c6ecf8/mac

Firefox
Navigate to Menu > Preferences > Privacy & Security, and scroll down to the Permissions section. Click the “Autoplay” Settings button and select “Allow Audio and Video” as the default for all websites.

More information on how to do this here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-autoplay

Video Issues

When the display shows “Video unavailable” when running a YouTube playlist, this may be caused by the first video in the playlist which does not allow embedding.

We recommend ensuring the first video in your YouTube playlist allows embedding.

To enable embedding on your YouTube video, access your YouTube Studio, and click “Details > More Options tab > Additional Options section”, and check the “Allow embedding” checkbox.