Publishing

Your clips go out to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Threads and Bluesky straight from ClipHeat: right away, at the best time, or on the date you choose. The Publishing screen, in the Distribute group.

Connecting an account

Once per account. The connection happens on the platform’s own site, which asks for your consent: ClipHeat never sees your password.

On the Publishing screen, the Accounts button: pick the platform, then Add account. Each linked account has its own row, with its picture and two buttons: Reconnect when the authorisation has expired, Unlink to remove it. Unlinking one account leaves the others alone.

Number of accounts by plan:

Plan	Connected accounts
Free	none — publishing is not included
Creator	1
Studio	4

The cap counts accounts, not platforms: with Studio, you can link TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn, or four YouTube channels, or two YouTube channels, a TikTok and an X account.

On X (280 characters) and Bluesky (300), the suggested caption is short: the text makes way for the hashtags and your closing text. On TikTok and Instagram, a link can be read but not opened. Reconnecting an expired account takes no extra slot. Plan details are on the pricing page.

Linked accounts also show in the sidebar, on the Publishing entry.

As long as no account is linked, ClipHeat reminds you when you start a generation — at most once a week. If your plan does not include publishing, the reminder takes you to the plans.

Sending a clip

From a project or the editor, the Publish button — for one clip, or for several selected clips. The window reads in five steps; each number turns into a tick when its step is ready.

Destinations — tick one or several accounts. Two YouTube channels are two separate destinations. An account whose authorisation has expired is flagged.
Captions — ClipHeat suggests for each clip a caption per platform, hashtags included (one tab per platform: TikTok, Reels, Shorts; on Shorts, a title and a description). Clicking a hashtag removes it, clicking a dashed suggestion adds it, and the Add a hashtag field takes more.
Thumbnail — by default, the clip’s first frame (or the one chosen in the editor). Change to pick another — see below.
When — now, At the best time, or at a set date. The time zone used is shown under the time.
Summary — the clips, the accounts, the thumbnail and the time. Publishing uses no credits.

The suggested captions

The suggestion is based on the clip’s title and hook. A label shows where it comes from: Suggested by AI, Taken from the analysis, or Default suggestion.

Your brand template’s post text is added to it: your hashtags come before the AI’s, and your closing text and the link to the original video go before the hashtags. They are never cut: when a platform limits the length, the suggested text gets shorter. On TikTok and Instagram, a link in a caption can be read but not opened.

Everything can be edited before sending, and what you type is never replaced automatically. Regenerate asks for a new caption for the open platform and clip, and replaces the text. If no suggestion arrives, write your own: a caption is not required.

Each platform has its limits, tracked by a counter under the field:

Platform	Caption	Other limit
TikTok	2,200 characters	—
Instagram (Reels)	2,200 characters	30 hashtags
YouTube (Shorts)	5,000-byte description	100-character title

The YouTube description is counted in bytes: an accented letter or an emoji weighs several. As long as a text is over the limit, the send button stays disabled and says which one to fix.

The thumbnail

If you choose nothing, a clip goes out with its first frame as thumbnail.

In the publish window, step Thumbnail → Change: eight frames of the clip appear, and an Exact moment slider lets you aim at a precise frame. The preview shows the one that will be sent. For several clips, pick the clip in the top row: each keeps its own thumbnail. Back to the first frame cancels the choice. This choice applies to this post only; it does not change the clip’s cover in your projects.

In the editor, put the playhead on the frame you want, then More → Set as thumbnail. It becomes the clip’s cover in your projects and goes out with your next posts: as the cover image on Instagram and Facebook, as the chosen frame of the video on TikTok. It then becomes the default thumbnail of the publish window.

YouTube does not allow a custom thumbnail for a Short, and LinkedIn, X, Threads and Bluesky do not take one: those platforms pick their own frame, and the window says so.

Apply your edits first: the thumbnail comes from the published file. If you edit the clip afterwards, set it again.

Several clips at once

Each clip keeps its own caption. On a computer, the clips are listed on the left; on a phone, they scroll above. Apply these hashtags to the other clips copies the open clip’s hashtags onto the others, without touching their text.

Clips go out one after another, and each row shows its status: waiting, sending, published, scheduled, refused, failed. A refused clip does not stop the next ones. At the end, the window lists the accounts that received each clip; for a scheduled send, See in the calendar opens the calendar.

Scheduling

The Schedule tab of the Publishing screen shows a calendar of your posts: the scheduled ones, those already out — on the date they were actually published, with a link to the post — and those that failed, with the reason. The calendar moves month by month, up to a year back and a year ahead.

Schedule from the calendar: click an upcoming day, choose the project, the clip and the time. The publishing window opens set to that moment; you only need to choose the accounts and the caption.
Move a post: drag it onto another day (it keeps its time), or use the Move button to choose a date and time. Only posts scheduled from ClipHeat and not yet published can be moved.

A past day cannot be scheduled, and you need at least five minutes’ notice.

Editing a clip that is already scheduled

If you edit and apply a clip that has a post scheduled and not yet out, the editor says so: the post still carries the previous version. Update the post puts the new one there, at the same time, with the same caption and on the same accounts. Nothing happens without that click. A post already out can no longer be changed.

Your slots

The Slots tab of the Publishing screen sets the times your clips go out — for example 9:00, 14:00 and 21:00, Monday to Friday. One line per time: tick its days, choose the time, then Save the slots. Times are read in your browser’s time zone, daylight saving included.

To go faster: templates (“3 a day on weekdays”, “every evening at 7 pm”, “noon and evening”, “weekends”) fill the list, and the week grid can be ticked cell by cell, by keyboard or mouse. Under the list, the next free slots show where your next clips will go.

In the publishing window, choose My slots: each clip takes the next free slot, one clip per slot, at least half an hour from anything already scheduled. Twelve selected clips go onto the next twelve free slots and show up in the schedule, where they can be moved like the others. A clip that finds no room within 90 days is not sent, and the window says so.

Duplicates

If the platform has already received the same clip in the last 24 hours, it does not create a duplicate, and ClipHeat tells you so: nothing new was posted. You can republish anyway, but you have to ask for it explicitly.

Cancelling

A scheduled post can be cancelled from the Schedule tab, as long as it has not gone out. A post already online cannot be removed from ClipHeat: delete it on the platform.

Your clips’ views

Once published, a clip shows its views and reactions: on its thumbnail in your projects, and in detail per platform on the Publishing screen.

The numbers come from the platforms themselves. ClipHeat counts no views of its own. Only the reaction rate is computed, using the formula written under its tile (see below).
They are updated every two hours, and the time of the last measurement is shown. The platforms themselves publish their counters several hours late.
A clip published less than an hour ago shows nothing yet. That is normal.

An empty cell is not a zero:

What you see	What it means
Nothing	No measurement has been received yet.
A dash	The platform does not provide this measurement.
`0`	The platform answered: zero.

Not every platform provides the same measurements: a dash in a column is not an error.

Statistics

The Statistics tab of the Publishing screen answers two questions: how your account is doing, and which of your clips worked. Included in the Creator and Studio plans. The Platform filter at the top of the tab applies to every section.

The overview

Pick 7, 30 or 90 days. Four figures, each compared with the previous period:

Figure	What it counts
Views	Views received during the period, across all your posts.
Reaction rate	(likes + comments + shares + saves) / views, on days that have views only.
Followers gained	What your accounts gained (or lost) during the period.
Clips published in the period	Clips sent from ClipHeat.

Below, the Views per day chart stacks the networks, day by day. Account figures are re-read every hour; followers, once a day. Right after opening, a message may say the reading is in progress: the figures arrive a few seconds later.

If the publishing service does not provide account statistics, a sentence says so and your clips’ figures stay on screen.

Your clips, as a table

Your most watched clips lists your published clips with their views, reaction rate, completion when the platform provides it (TikTok), and their ClipHeat score alongside — what the analysis predicted, next to what happened. Click a header to sort; a clip without a measurement stays at the bottom.

The arrow at the end of a row opens the clip details:

its views day by day, per platform;
YouTube retention: the share of the audience watching at each moment of the Short. Above 100%, viewers rewatch the moment. It arrives two to three days after publishing; if the channel hasn’t granted access to its statistics yet, reconnect it;
for TikTok, where the views come from (For You, Following, Search…) and the share watched to the end.

What works best

Your clips compared with each other: video or live, length (under 30 s, 30 to 60 s, over 60 s), with or without a hook, and by subtitle style. Each group shows its average views and reaction rate. A clip without a measurement enters no average, and a comparison only appears when at least two groups have figures.

When to post

A day × hour grid shows the average engagement of your past posts, in your time zone. Create my slots opens the Slots tab with your best moments suggested: check them, then Save the slots. Nothing is created before that click.

Followers per account

One curve per connected account, over the chosen period, with the current total and the gain.

TikTok: full statistics

A TikTok account connected before the move to TikTok for Business only sends views, likes, comments and shares. ClipHeat flags it at the top of the tab: Reconnect moves the account through TikTok for Business, and unlocks completion rate, watch time and view sources. Reconnecting the same account keeps its history; these figures arrive 24 to 48 hours after each post.

When it fails

The most frequent causes:

The account’s authorisation has expired. Click Reconnect on its row.
The clip is longer than the platform accepts.
The platform refuses the content (protected music, community rules). Its message is shown as is.