How to see who watched a video you shared

A video editor sends the second cut to a client on Friday. A founder records a product walkthrough for six prospects. A team lead shares a training video with new starters. In each case, what the sender wants to know next is who has pressed play, and the answer usually comes back as a single view count or nothing at all.

This guide covers the common ways people share videos and check who watched, why a total view count only goes so far, and how to publish a video from Fabric with a separate named link for each viewer, so the visits on each link show you who has opened it.

How people usually share a video and check views

An unlisted YouTube video is quick to set up and plays well on any device. Its view count is a single total across all viewers, so if you sent it to six people and it shows four views, you can’t tell whether four people watched once or one person watched four times.

Vimeo and similar hosts offer private links and more detailed statistics, which suits people who publish video regularly. The numbers still describe the video as a whole. Screen recording tools like Loom report views and give more detail when the viewer is signed in to the same service, which works well inside a company and less well with clients who aren’t.

A cloud drive link (Google Drive, Dropbox) keeps the original file with you and lets the recipient download it. For large cuts, playback can be slow, and the sender usually learns the video was watched only when an email arrives with notes.

Step 1: Get the video into Fabric

Drag the video into the Fabric web app or click Upload a file. For long or high-resolution files, the Fabric desktop app is often easier: it mounts Fabric as a virtual drive, you copy the export into it like any other folder, and the file streams when opened instead of taking space on your computer. How to edit video straight from a cloud drive explains that setup for editors.

For a series, such as onboarding videos or a set of social cuts, put them in one folder. A folder publishes as a web page, so each viewer gets one link to the whole set, and the visits on that link show whether they’ve opened it.

Step 2: Publish a separate link for each viewer

Click Share to open the share modal, open the Publish tab and click Create link. Name the link after the person it’s for (Marco, client review or Prospect: Halden Labs) and turn on collect engagement analytics. Repeat for each viewer. Every publish link has its own settings and its own record of visits, and you can create as many as you need for the same video.

Separate links are what turn visits into names. Analytics are recorded per link and don’t identify the visitor, so the link’s name is how you know whose visit you’re looking at. Link analytics are on the Pro and Team plans.

While setting up each link, decide whether to allow downloads (a client may need the final file; a prospect probably doesn’t), and turn off allow indexing by search engines for unreleased work.

Step 3: Add a password for unreleased footage

For an unreleased edit, a confidential demo or internal training, add a password. Right-click the video, or open it and click the three-dot menu, choose Add password protection and enter a password. Password protection is on Pro and Team. Viewers enter the password once and keep access for 6 hours. There’s no reset, so store it somewhere safe.

Step 4: Check the visits on each link

Each link has a chart of traffic over time, the date of each visit, and the location and device of each visitor. Link analytics let you compare links, so a glance shows which viewers have opened the video and which haven’t. A visit tells you the person opened the page with the video on it. Because the chart runs over time, you can also see whether someone came back days later, which often happens just before a review call.

Patterns are often more useful than single visits. Three visits on a client’s link over two days, from a laptop and then a phone, suggests the cut is being passed around or rewatched. A prospect whose link has no visits a week after a demo is probably the one to follow up with first.

Step 5: Use comments to see what they watched closely

Visit data tells you a video was opened. To learn which moments someone cared about, share the video with them as a commenter instead of publishing it. Commenters leave timestamped comments, and on video a comment can include a drawing on the frame. You can mark each comment completed once the change is made. The annotations page shows how this looks.

Transcription, on paid plans, makes the video searchable by what’s said in it and lets the AI assistant answer questions with timestamps. Audio and video transcription covers supported formats, including MP4, MOV and WebM.

Frequently asked questions

Can I see who watched my unlisted YouTube video?

An unlisted video reports one total view count across all viewers. To see visits per person, give each viewer their own link, for example by publishing the video from Fabric with a named link for each.

How do I track who opened a video I sent?

Publish the video from Fabric, create a named link for each recipient with collect engagement analytics on, and check the visits on each link.

What information do I see about each visit?

The visit date, plus the location and device of the visitor, alongside a chart of traffic over time for that link.

Can I see which parts of the video they cared about?

Share the video with commenter permission and ask for timestamped comments. Each comment is pinned to a moment in the video and can include a drawing on the frame.

Can viewers download the video?

Only if you turn on allow downloads for their link. You can allow it on one person’s link and not another’s.

Do viewers need a Fabric account?

No. Published links open in a browser, and shared links work without signing up.

Will storing large videos in Fabric use my disk space?

Videos on the Fabric desktop drive take no space on your computer and stream when opened.

Which plan includes video link tracking?

Link analytics are on Pro and Team. Publishing itself is on every plan. Teams can compare options on the team pricing page.