Embed Media

If you'd like to show showcase a video or set up a livestream, you can embed video into an interactive object. The following platforms are great options for sharing video:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• YouTube live (livestreaming)
• Twitch (livestreaming)
• Or really anywhere with HTTPS and a video embed link.

Add Interactive Object

To embed a video in an object, open the Object Picker from Mapmaker or from the Build pane in your Space. In the Object Picker, select your desired object. Under Object Interactions, select Embedded video.

From the Object Picker, select your object. In the Object Interactions section, select Embedded video.

Copy the URL into the Video field. Set the activation distance (default is 3) and any other advanced options (more below).

Paste the URL into the Video field.

Place the object in your Space and select Save in the Top Nav Menu of the Mapmaker. (No need to save if using the Object Picker in your Space.)

Place the object in your Map and select Save.

When anyone walks up to the object, they will be prompted to interact with the default message (Press x to interact) or your custom prompt message. A small preview of the video displays at the bottom of the screen. When they press "x" on the keyboard, the embedded video displays within Gather. They can press "x" again or click the x to close the embedded video.

Advanced Options: Synchronized Videos

You can enter a Synchronized start time to choose the time and date for the video to play to everyone within activation distance. 

Use the calendar picker to choose the Synchronized start time to begin playing the video to everyone within activation distance.

• To test your synced TV to see if the video plays back properly, set the 'time' for a time ~1 minute in the past, and make sure the video plays accordingly. (It should start ~1 minute in.)
• Video objects with a synchronized start time set that have not yet reached the designated time will appear on the map, with a blank black screen. The blank screen will continue to display until the start time you have entered. Guests will not be able to start playing the video on their own.

Embed Video as Website

If you want video controls and closed captioning for a YouTube video, you can add it as an embedded website instead. To do this, you need to modify the URL of the video, replacing "watch?v=" with "embed/". 

For example, if the original URL for the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JePchzu_USM, you need to edit it to https://www.youtube.com/embed/JePchzu_USM. 

Then copy and paste the new URL into the Website field for your interactive object.

To add a YouTube video with player controls, use the Embedded website field in the Object Picker and edit the URL.

When the person interacts with the object, the video will open in an iframe as an embedded website, with the YouTube player controls.

When you press "x" to interact with the object, the video plays in an iframe with the YouTube controls.

You can link any embeddable website in an interactive object and have it open directly inside of Gather within an iframe. This includes individual Google documents, spreadsheets, and forms, but not Google Drive file directories. Almost any site can be embedded as long as the website administrator allows embedding.

Add Interactive Object

To embed an image in an object, open the Object Picker from Mapmaker or from the Build pane in your Space. In the Object Picker, select your desired object. Under Object Interactions, select Embedded website.

Open the Object Picker in the Mapmaker. Pick your object, and under Object Interactions, select Embedded website.

Enter the URL of the website you wish to embed. Set your activation distance (the default is 3), and add a custom prompt message, if you'd like.

Enter the URL of the website you want to embed in the object. Set the activation distance and add a prompt message, if you'd like.

Place the object in your Space and select Save in the Top Nav Menu of the Mapmaker (no need to save if you're placing the object within your Space). 

Place the object in your Space and select Save.

When anyone walks up to the object, they will be prompted to interact with the default message (Press x to interact) or your custom prompt message. When they press "x" on the keyboard, the embedded website displays within Gather. They can press "x" again or click the x to close the embedded website.

Riley walks up the interactive object, presses "x" on his keyboard, then sees the Gather help center embedded in Gather.

Embedded Website Troubleshooting

• The website must be a URL that begins with https. Unfortunately, we do not allow http sites for security concerns.
• The website must allow embedding in an iframe. If the site dose not allow embedding, you will see a "refused to connect" message or something similar when you interact with the object. You can test if a website will work in an iframe here: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_iframe 
• A workaround for websites that cannot be embedded is to paste the URL within an object as a note interaction. This will allow the participants to see a URL when they interact with that object, as in the screenshot and gif below. If they click the URL it will open the website in a new tab.

Add the URL in the message of a Note object interaction.

When the person interacts with the object, they can click the URL in the note to access the website.

For non-embeddable websites, use a Note interaction to provide the URL. 

If you'd like to embed a slideshow in Gather for someone to interact with whenever they wish, you first need to upload the slides to a site that will create an embeddable link, such as Google Slides. 

Add Google Slides

Upload your presentation to Google Slides. From the File menu, select Publish to the web. 

From the File menu in Google Slides select Publish to the web.

In the Publish to the web window, select Publish. 

In the Publish to the web window, select Publish.

Confirm that you wish to publish. A URL now displays for you to copy and paste.

Google Slides generates a link for sharing the slides.

From the generated link, remove everything after "pub?" and replace that text with "embed." For example, you’ll get a URL like this, and you need to delete the highlighted text: 

After deleting everything after "pub?", add the word “embed” so it looks like this instead:

Copy the modified link. 

Add the Interactive Object

To embed a video in an object, open the Object Picker from Mapmaker or from the Build pane in your Space. In the Object Picker, select your desired object. Under Object Interactions, select Embedded website. Paste the modified URL into the field. 

Create an interactive object and use Embedded website to paste your Google Slides embed URL.

Save the changes and interact with the object so that you can view the slides. 

A view of embedded Google Slides in Gather. 

Similar to embedding a slideshow, embedding PDFs, spreadsheets, forms, or other files is best handled through Google Drive, because Google provides an embeddable link that will show the file in Gather's iframe. For each of these options, you must add an interactive object from the Object Picker. From the object's interactions, select Embedded website to enter the URL of your file. 

Add a PDF

If you would like to add a PDF rather than a png or jpg, you must upload it to a public site (such as Google Drive). If you use Google Drive, copy the publicly shareable file link, altering the URL to end in "preview". For instance:

To embed the PDF in an object, open the Object Picker from Mapmaker or from the Build pane in your Space. In the Object Picker, select your desired object. Under Object Interactions, select Embedded website. Paste the modified URL of your file. 

You can also copy any public URL of a PDF and paste that URL into the Embedded website field of the Object picker (e.g., you can upload a PDF to a website you host, then copy the URL, like "www.example.com/file.pdf").

When anyone walks up to the object, they will be prompted to interact with the default message (Press x to interact) or your custom prompt message. When they press "x" on the keyboard, the embedded PDF displays within Gather. They can press "x" again or click the x to close the embedded PDF.

Add a Google Form

You can easily add a Google Form to your Space. First, create the form in Google. Within Google, select Send in the Top Nav Menu. In the Send form window, for Send via, select the link icon. Copy the link (you don't have to shorten the URL).

Within your Google form, select Send. Choose the link icon for Send via, then copy the URL.

To embed the form in an object, open the Object Picker from Mapmaker or from the Build pane in your Space. In the Object Picker, select your desired object. Under Object Interactions, select Embedded website. Enter the form URL. Set the activation distance (default is 3) and any other advanced options.

Place the object in your Space and select Save in the Top Nav Menu of the Mapmaker (no need to save if you're placing the object within your Space).

When anyone walks up to the object, they will be prompted to interact with the default message (Press x to interact) or your custom prompt message. When they press "x" on the keyboard, the embedded form displays within Gather. They can press "x" again or click the x to close the embedded form.

Add Microsoft 365 Documents

You can embed Office 365 documents into Gather using the following process:

1. Open OneDrive in your file browser or in your web browser.
2. Right-click the file you wish to embed.
3. Select Embed. 
4. In the panel that appears on the right, copy the text from the Embed field and paste it into a text editor.
5. Extract the embed link from the iframe text. What the link will look like is highlighted below (it's everything between the quotes that comes after 'iframe src=').

<iframe src="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=[NUMBERS]&resid=[MORE NUMBERS]%[NUMBERS]&authkey=[NUMBERS AND CHARACTERS]&em=2" width="402" height="346" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

In OneDrive, right click on the file you wish to share. Select Embed in the context menu, then copy the embed code, specifically the URL.

To embed the 365 file in an object, open the Object Picker from Mapmaker or from the Build pane in your Space. In the Object Picker, select your desired object. Under Object Interactions, select Embedded website. Enter the embed URL from the embed code. Set the activation distance (default is 3) and any other advanced options.

Place the object in your Space and select Save in the Top Nav Menu of the Mapmaker (no need to save if you're placing the object within your Space).

When anyone walks up to the object, they will be prompted to interact with the default message (Press x to interact) or your custom prompt message. When they press "x" on the keyboard, the embedded 365 file displays within Gather. They can press "x" again or click the x to close the embedded file.

• Use a separate computer and sign in as a "DJ" to pipe music into the room by playing the DJ's avatar on a Spotlight tile.
• Use screen share on Chrome. If you want to isolate the audio that you're sharing to a specific tab in your browser (e.g., Spotify or a YouTube channel), select Chrome Tab, and choose the tab you wish to share, and select the Share tab audio checkbox.

In Chrome, choose Chrome Tab, then select the tab you wish to share, making sure Share tab audio is selected.

• Insert an object and embed a video, using the Synched TV option. You can broadcast a very long YouTube video, but guests will need to be within the object's Activation Distance to hear/see it. 
• Use a third-party application like OBS.