Carousels

Every short you make can also become a photo carousel: its own frames at its key moments, with a cover and a closing slide. Carousels are made on our servers in under a minute, cost no credits, and give each account one more post a day from work already done.

What it does#

A carousel is built from the episode itself:

The slides are 1080 × 1350 (4:5) for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Threads, and 1080 × 1920 (9:16) for TikTok, with the caption band never cut. Each slide has its own alt text. The post's words are the episode's own, fitted to each platform — no new claims, and nothing that labels the work.

An episode with too few clear caption moments cannot make a carousel; its page says so, and the channel's carousel slot passes it over.

How to use it#

Turn on a channel's daily carousel#

1. Open the channel and find Carousels in the right column.
2. Tick Post a carousel each day.
3. Under Post to, tick the platforms — Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads — or none, for every one of them the channel has connected. A platform outside your plan, or not connected, says so beside it.
4. Set Time of day, in the channel's time zone. The field suggests a time far from the channel's video times.
5. Press Save carousels.

Carousels start once the channel's posting schedule is on (Schedule & generation); until then the card says so.

How the daily slot works#

• The time: each day at a random minute within 40 minutes of your time of day — never the same minute two days running.
• Away from the videos: never within 90 minutes of a video post on the same account. A time of day less than about two hours from one of the channel's video times leaves part of the window — or all of it — unusable, and the card warns you: "Pick a time at least 2 h 10 min from them."
• One a day per account, whichever of your channels planned first — never more, so an account never looks automated.
• Which episode: the newest one whose video already went out on that platform, with no carousel there yet. A carousel always follows its video.
• On time or not at all: it is made about two hours ahead and posted at its minute; if it cannot go out within ten minutes of it, the day is marked missed — never posted late.

The card lists the slots of Today and tomorrow with their state — planned, being made, going out, posted, failed, skipped, missed or nothing to post — and why, and the channel's Last carousels with links.

An episode's carousel#

On a ready episode's page, the Carousel section shows its slides — Cover, each frame, Closing slide — and:

• Make carousel · free (or Make it again · free) — made on our servers from the episode's own frames, usually in under a minute;
• The words each platform gets, each with Copy;
• a row for each platform, with Post now · free to post it yourself.

A member's post goes out within two minutes, at a moment of its own, never at the very second of the click. A platform's row says what it waits for instead — its video first, make it first, connect, reconnect or not in plan. A post whose answer was lost shows Look for it (it is looked for on the account before anything is sent again) or, for LinkedIn, whose posts cannot be read back, Confirm it is not live, retry. A carousel is never posted twice.

TikTok#

TikTok carousels are posted in TikTok's photo mode from the episode's own TikTok carousel screen (Post…), where you choose who sees the post and agree to TikTok's terms — never on a slot. They wait until TikTok has checked ChannelForge's address for photos; until then the row says so. Like every TikTok post today, they are private ("Only me") until TikTok's audit of ChannelForge's app passes. See TikTok.

Settings#

Credits and plans#

• Free. Making a carousel and posting it hold and charge no credits: it is a minute of our servers, with no GPU and no model.
• Plans: carousels post to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads and TikTok, so they come with the plans that include those platforms — Creator and above. The Trial posts to YouTube only.

Limits and good to know#

• Who can do what: editors, admins and owners change the settings, make carousels and post them.
• X never gets carousels, and neither do Bluesky and Pinterest.
• Instagram takes up to ten slides, which every carousel fits: a cover, five to eight frames and a closing slide.
• A revised episode makes its carousel again from the new version, if the carousel has not been posted anywhere.
• Carousels are their own posts: they never take one of the channel's video slots.

Troubleshooting#

• "This episode cannot make a carousel." It has too few still caption moments to make clear slides. The next episode will do; nothing is charged.
• "Its video has not gone out on … yet — a carousel follows the video." Post the video there first.
• "This … account had a carousel within the last day." One a day per account: it can go out tomorrow, or on the channel's carousel slot.
• No carousel went out today. Check that a chosen platform is connected, that the channel's schedule is on, and that the slot's line under Today and tomorrow does not say why it was skipped.

Related#

• Episodes — what a carousel is made from
• Brand suites — the colours and type of its cover
• Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads — the accounts it posts to
• Schedules and autopilot — the channel's video slots