Guide
Send dailies and selects as a link.
Your client wants to see this morning’s footage on their phone. Here’s the shortest path from drive to viewer.
In short: In Sift, pick folders or clips from search or Selects, invite your client by email or choose Copy link, and send it. It plays in any browser on any device, and they can search it and send Selects back. Sift uploads small 540p copies, not your originals, and removes them when the link ends.
No editor needed. Sift works on its own as a desktop app on Mac and Windows: search, preview, build Selects and share footage by link without opening an editor. The editor panels are optional.
The usual way, and why it’s slow
Export, upload, wait, share, repeat. A full review platform is worth it for frame-accurate comments and approvals. For “look at the dailies” it’s a lot of steps.
What a shared link is
A private web page with small 540p copies of what you chose, at a short address like watch.siftclips.com/Xg71nKdX9TGm. Only the people you invite by email can open it, or anyone with the link if you choose Copy link; no app, no account. They can search what was said, what’s on screen and who’s in it, and tick clips into Selects that show up in your Sift. Every Sift includes one free link (up to 10 minutes of footage, open for 3 days); plans for more start at $29 a month. Delete a link and it stops at once; footage no link uses is removed from the cloud within hours.
Good habits
- Send a Selects group instead of a folder so the client sees only what you want.
- For long clips, send the first 30 seconds or just the matched moment.
- For anything sensitive, invite people by email rather than using Copy link, and leave downloads off.
- Delete links early when the review is done.
What it isn’t
It isn’t a replacement for Frame.io when you need frame-accurate comments and formal approvals. It covers getting footage in front of someone to watch.
Step by step.
- Choose what to send
A clip from search, a shoot folder, or a Selects group.
- Invite them
Type your client’s email, or choose Copy link. Decide whether downloads are on.
- Copy the link
Videos appear as soon as each is ready, so you can send it right away.
- Delete when done
Delete the link when the review is over; it stops at once.
Questions
Does the client need Sift?
No. They need the link and a browser.
Are my original files uploaded?
No. Only small 540p copies of what you chose.
Can clients comment?
Not on frames. They can search, watch and send Selects back, but it isn’t a frame-by-frame review platform.
Is it included?
One free link is: up to 10 minutes of footage, open for 3 days. For more, Link sharing plans are 100 hours for $29 a month or 500 hours for $79 a month.
Updated 2026-10-22
Keep reading.
Try it on your own footage.
Free for 3 days or 25 searches. No card. Then $99 a year for one computer, Mac or Windows. Everything in Sift, including the optional editor panels and one free link to share footage.