Add a Play Button to Facebook and Other Social Media Sites via PlayTube  

Sorry if this sounded like click bait, but the whole premise behind this modification for PlayTube is to be one with the click bait. My modification allows you to share videos to Facebook and other social media services with the thumbnail showing a play button embedded automatically on the thumbnail. It doesn't attach the play button to any other thumbnails except the meta tags. This is to avoid conflicts with the current play button on thumbnails on the website itself. This only attaches to thumbnails of videos you share.

I wish it was possible to use the Facebook Instant Articles player and if I had 10,000 views a month to be able to develop an implementation, I would. Until one of us gets that many viewers on Facebook, this is going to be the closest we can get.

So now when you share your videos, or someone else does, it will look like people can actually watch the video by pressing play. They already clicked it, chances are they will shrug, and continue on, because we gottem!

Unsure of the policies for Facebook on this, but I am currently using it and I have seen Twitch do the same thing, so I think we are in the clear.

As you can see, now when you or a user shares a video, the script will apply a play button. If you combine this with my PlayTube Facebook Auto Poster, you will be spitting out these videos in no time. Keep in mind, the auto poster script requires a business license for verification with Facebook. However this script does not.

I have included all the files you need, and there will need to be one core modification made to the PlayTube core. Also the button can be replaced with your own image and you could even use it to watermark your thumbnails. ( Don't do this if you don't own the rights )

Required Edit
In index.php find

if ($pt->page == 'watch') {
    $og_meta = PT_LoadPage('watch/og-meta', array(
        'TITLE' => $pt->title,
        'DESC' => mb_substr($pt->description, 0, 400, "UTF-8"),
        'THUMB' => str_replace('mqdefault', '0', $get_video->thumbnail),
        'URL' => PT_Link('watch/' . PT_Slug($get_video->title, $get_video->video_id))
    ));
}

Replace with

if ($pt->page == 'watch') {
    $og_meta = PT_LoadPage('watch/og-meta', array(
        'TITLE' => $pt->title,
        'DESC' => mb_substr($pt->description, 0, 400, "UTF-8"),
        'THUMB' => str_replace('mqdefault', '0', $site_url . '/' . 'watermark.php?thumbnail=' . $get_video->thumbnail),
        'URL' => PT_Link('watch/' . PT_Slug($get_video->title, $get_video->video_id))
    ));
}

Note: Always backup your db and any files to be modified just to be safe. These types of modifications are not a simple plug and play kind of install. I am not responsible for any loss of data nor does this script come with any guarantee. This script is provided as is.