Castio.live – Live Streaming Plugin for WordPress (HLS) + Real-Time Chat

Changelog

🚀 Major update: payments, Gutenberg, and UX improvements

💳 PayPal Paywall (NEW)
Accept payments via PayPal in addition to Stripe.
Secure redirect flow (Orders API v2) — no webhooks required.

🧱 Gutenberg Blocks (NEW)
4 native blocks to embed streaming features:
– Streams Grid
– Live Stream
– Stream Viewer
– My Videos

Fully dynamic with settings in the block editor.

📚 FAQ redesign
New responsive 2-column layout for better readability.

🎞️ Animated plugin icon
Improved visibility in WordPress plugin search results.

New features

Video preview on stream edit page – A “Video Preview” meta box now appears on the stream edit screen (castio_stream post type). It uses hls.js to play the recorded VOD (vod.m3u8) or live playlist (index.m3u8) with poster image support, so editors can watch the video directly from the WordPress admin without leaving the page.
Vertical resize bar between video and chat – A draggable handle between the video player and the chat panel lets viewers adjust the height split on the fly. Supports both mouse and touch (mobile).
Smart scroll with new-message notification – When a viewer scrolls up to read earlier messages, incoming messages no longer force the chat to jump to the bottom. A “▼ N new messages” pill appears instead; clicking it scrolls back to the latest message.
User count on toggle button – The “Show/Hide Users” button now displays the live connected-user count, e.g. “Hide Users (4)”.
Support ticket shortcut on FAQ page – A prominent button on the FAQ admin page opens https://castio.live/support/ with the admin email, domain, and license key pre-filled as query parameters for faster support authentication.
Video preview excluded from stream listing – The [castio_streams] shortcode now silently skips any stream post that has no recorded video on disk (vod.m3u8 or index.m3u8 absent), keeping the public listing clean.

Freemium model changes

Chat is now free – Live chat is available on all plans, including the free (unlicensed) plan. The “Allow Chat (Premium)” label and disabled state have been removed.
Chat moderation is Premium – Ban, unban, and delete-message controls now require an active premium license. Non-premium admins see a contextual upgrade notice inside the users sidebar. All five moderation REST endpoints (/chat/mod/ban, /unban, /delete, /banned_list, /list) enforce the premium check server-side.
Admin notice updated – The locked-features notice no longer lists “Allow Chat”; it now lists “Chat Moderation (ban / delete)” and notes that chat is free.

UX & UI improvements

Emoji picker overhaul – Expanded from 8 to 32 emojis across faces, hand gestures, and symbols. The picker now uses position: fixed (appended to <body>) so it renders above the video element on all browsers and devices, escaping any overflow: hidden clipping. Position is calculated from the button’s bounding rect and clamped to stay fully within the viewport. On mobile (≤480 px) columns reduce from 8 to 6 to prevent overflow.
Chat form buttons – All chat buttons now have a white background for a lighter look; the Send button retains a dark style to stay visually distinct.
Mobile users panel full-width – On screens ≤640 px, opening the users panel makes it take the full width of the chat area (messages are hidden), providing a proper mobile experience.
Admin cannot ban themselves – Both the sidebar ban button and the per-message ban button now detect when the target name matches the admin’s own username and disable the action silently.

License page improvements

Active license badge is now a prominent green pill with a checkmark (✓ Active) instead of plain colored text.
When the license is active, the license-key input is shown as read-only (disabled) so the key remains visible but cannot be accidentally edited.
The “Purchase Premium” button is hidden when the license is active.
The “Save & Verify” button is always visible regardless of license status.

Admin page (?page=castio_live) improvements

The “Description” fieldset legend renamed to “About this stream” for clearer phrasing.
The Invitations block moved to appear directly above the “About this stream” block.
“Allow Chat” checkbox is always enabled; the disabled/Premium state is removed.

Bug fixes

Fixed emoji popup appearing behind the <video> element on mobile browsers (hardware-composited video layer issue) by relocating the popup to <body> with position: fixed.
Fixed emoji popup overflowing off-screen edges; popup now measures its own rendered size before positioning and clamps to the viewport with a 6 px margin on all sides.
Fixed can_moderate being passed as 1 for admins without a premium license.

Initial public release.

Plugin Website
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Author
proxymis

Version:
1.2.0

Last Updated
March 30, 2026

Active Installs
30

Requires
WordPress 6.2

Tested Up To
WordPress 6.9.4

Requires PHP
7.3