Update: you can now easily remove related videos from embedded YouTube videos by unchecking a box in YouTube. Here are the full instructions: How to remove related videos from the end of an embedded YouTube video: update
As I’m sure you’ve seen, YouTube displays related videos at the end of videos you have viewed. This can be useful, but this can also be problematic. For example, we were recently working on a very personal project for a client. This client had a great video to use for their cause, but because the project was so personal to them, they felt uncomfortable that all these random, unconnected videos were being offered to viewers at the end of the video.
I remembered that I had seen that you can remove related videos from the end of a YouTube video. It turns out, it’s really quite easy to do!
Let’s say I want to embed this adorable kitten video in my site to share it with my readers:
You see all those supposedly related cute kitten videos at the end? How can YouTube dare to even compare this video with others? In order to make sure you are completely focused on this cute kitten, I will remove the related videos from the end. Note: you can only do this on embedded videos, and not on YouTube itself.
- Go to the video’s individual page on YouTube. In this case, the individual page is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8GHf-aELjY.
- On the bottom of the video, click Share.
- Once you click Share, a new area slides open underneath the video with a shortlink for sharing the video. It also presents an Embed button. Click that.
- When you click Embed, another area opens up underneath that offers you the embed code, and also a number of options to allow you to customize the video’s appearance on your site. The first option is a checkbox that says “Show suggested videos when the video finishes.” Make sure that box is unchecked. If you look at the embed code, you’ll see that it adds a parameter after the video’s URL:
?rel=0
. “Rel” means related videos, and 0 is a binary command, meaning No.
- Copy the embed code and paste wherever you want the video to appear! See below:
While I was searching for this solution, I came across a list of parameters that you can add to YouTube embed code to customize the player: YouTube Embedded Players and Player Parameters. For example, let’s say I think that the above video speaks for itself, and doesn’t need the title to appear on the player. To remove the title, I would add another parameter to the video’s URL in the embed code. So the URL would change from
https://www.youtube.com/embed/z8GHf-aELjY?rel=0
to
https://www.youtube.com/embed/z8GHf-aELjY?rel=0&showinfo=0
(note the use of the & to add another parameter). Here’s the final embed code:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/z8GHf-aELjY?rel=0&showinfo=0 frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And here’s how the video looks without the related videos or title:
Other things you can customize in your player with these parameters are if it autoplays, loops, starts or ends at a particular point in the video, and more!
