Announce a new Shorts episode with a YouTube post and a video frame

Pull a strong frame from the new episode with Sume video frames and use it as the image of a YouTube post that announces it. YouTube said image posts can now be recommended in the Shorts feed, so a still can reach people who are swiping through Shorts.

What YouTube said

The 2026-09-23 YouTube post about Shorts says posts can be recommended in the Shorts feed (YouTube Blog). For image limits, see the existing post on image posts in the Shorts feed rather than a repeat here.

Pull candidates

Ask for several times across the episode, since the first frame is often a title or a fade. Up to 24 times per request.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-frames \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: ep5-announce-frames" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/ep5.mp4",
    "at": [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11],
    "format": "jpeg",
    "max_edge": 1920
  }'

Choose and finish

Pick the frame that shows the hook, with the subject large and no mid-blink faces. If you want a headline on it, add text in your design tool, or ask for a stylised still with the image model instead.

The tools that touch this workflow.

Post it

Post the still with a line that names the episode number and where to watch. Keep posts and episodes consistent so viewers recognise the series.