Video still, poster image, first frame …  we’ve heard all sorts of terms for the image that appears when the page loads, before your viewers begin watching. We call it the thumbnail.

By default, our system selects the middle frame of the video. Sometimes, this can catch the speaker awkwardly or mid-sentence.

To change it, click "Customize" on your media page, then "Thumbnail," and choose one of four options:

Maybe you have a great image you’ve custom-designed to serve as the thumbnail. Fantastic! In order to give it its moment to shine, head to "Customize" on the media page. Open the "Thumbnail" panel, click the upload box, then choose a file from your computer, or drag and drop the image. We’ll take care of it from there!

We’ve got lots of tips for picking the perfect thumbnail, but if you’re uploading a custom thumbnail, you might be curious about the right size. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

When uploading your own image for your thumbnails, we recommend using an image that shares the same aspect ratio as your video.

What’s an aspect ratio, you ask? Great question!

An aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between the width and height of your video. This ratio is represented with 2 numbers separated by a colon. There are a few aspect ratios you may be familiar with:

You can determine the aspect ratio of your content from the size of your original video.

If you decide to use a frame from your video for your thumbnail, you’ll first need to play the video until you reach the frame that you'd like, then pause the video on that frame.

You can also click through the playbar or timeline to find the exact frame. From here, click "Use current frame." You’ll see a "Processing … " message for a couple of seconds, then your video will refresh, and you’ll see the new thumbnail.

Select from a set of auto-generated thumbnails, either from your media's Manage page, or from within the Customize menu. Click "Reload" to generate a new set of random thumbnail images taken from your video.

If you’d really like to give your thumbnail some extra panache, a video thumbnail is a great option. There are two different types of video thumbnails :  you can select a section of your current video or a different video.

So, how do you set a video thumbnail? With Customize open, select “Thumbnail.” From here, set the type to “Video.”

One way to select a section from your video to use as the thumbnail is by typing in the start and end times.

Alternatively, you can move the "video thumbnail loop" icon around on the timeline and drag the ends to adjust the timing of the selected section.

Once this is set up, the section autoplays on a loop before a viewer presses play. This is great to preview the most exciting part of your video, or just to show a friendly person giving a wave to viewers. And, it really grabs the eye of someone scrolling through a page.

If you'd like to select a different video to play as your looping thumbnail, you'll need to:

You’ve picked the perfect frame, or chosen the most eye-catching segment of your video to use as the thumbnail, but it still needs a little something? A text overlay can take your thumbnail to the next level. Using a text overlay, you can provide context to a prospective viewer and let them know what they’re about to watch .

Text overlays can be added to either still or video thumbnails. Click "Include text overlay" and update the text box. You’ll see the text update on the video as you type, so you can adjust your spacing and line breaks to get it looking just right.

When you're all set, save your changes.

If you need to download your thumbnail image, there are a few places where you can do so.

From the media's Manage page, open the ellipsis menu, click "Download," and choose the "Thumbnail" option in the modal that appears.

Or, in the Customize experience, open the "Thumbnail" panel and click "Download."

If your thumbnail changes aren’t showing on your embedded video or on your Wistia media's manage page, your old customizations may still be cached. Try clearing your browser’s cache, restarting your browser, and ensuring your browser and operating system are both fully up to date.

Other platforms cache link previews and may keep showing an old thumbnail. While we can't control how long another platform caches a preview, there are a few ways you may be able to get around this. Try adding a parameter to the end of the shared URL (e.g. ?1) so the platform treats it as new, or share a copy of the media instead.

Check your embed code for a stillUrl or poster option. If either of these options have been added to your embed code, they’ll override the thumbnail in Wistia and you’ll want to remove them.

This usually happens when the thumbnail and video’s aspect ratios don’t match. Re-upload your thumbnail image with a copy that has the same aspect ratio as your video.

Still stuck? Check out our Embed Troubleshooting guide and give us a shout if you still need help.

Some mobile devices will only show the first frame of a video instead of the video loop. After confirming your video has finished processing entirely and your video thumbnail changes have been successfully saved in Wistia, try clearing your mobile device’s cache.