Table of contents
Playlists are the core concept at the heart of content creation with Fugo. We believe publishing to your screens should be simple enough for anyone on any team, not just a seasoned IT admin.
This guide covers everything you need to know about creating, scheduling, publishing, and managing content through Fugo's Playlists feature.
Before you dive in:
If you haven't already signed up for Fugo yet, you can start your 14-day free trial here.
You don't need a screen to create a playlist, but you will need a paired screen to publish one.
For how to pair a screen, check out this guide. If you want to know which player platforms we support, check out our hardware collection.
Let's get started!
What types of playlist scheduling does Fugo support?
In Fugo, everything starts with a playlist. How and when it plays depends on the scheduling and screen assignments you give it. You can configure playlists to:
Play continuously - no schedule set; the playlist plays on its assigned screens whenever nothing else is scheduled.
Recurring weekly schedules - repeat on selected days of the week within defined time windows (e.g. Mon–Fri, 9:00–17:00).
Date-range schedules - set a start date and an optional end date so the playlist runs only during a defined period.
Combined date + time schedules - combine a date range with a weekly time window for precise control.
Screen-specific assignments - publish to individual screens or screen groups you select manually.
Property-based assignments - publish to any screen that matches a screen property you define (e.g. "kiosk"). Any screen added later with that property automatically receives the playlist too.
Network-wide assignments - publish to every screen in your network for company-wide messaging.
Triggered playlists - display in response to a manual activation or an external event. These use Fugo's separate Triggers feature
💡 Recurring schedules, date ranges, and screen assignments are all part of the same playlist - they're not separate playlist types. A single playlist can combine a date range, a weekly time window, and any combination of screens, screen groups, or property-based targeting.
Basic rules about playlists
A few things to keep in mind before you start building:
There's no limit to how many playlists you can create.
There's no limit to how many playlists can be published to a single screen.
Screens don't require a single "master playlist." You can have multiple playlists with different content, schedules, and screen assignments running simultaneously.
If multiple playlists are published to the same screen with no schedule, they play in the order they were created (oldest first). Scheduled playlists take priority over unscheduled ones when they overlap.
If two scheduled playlists overlap on the same screen, the one created first takes priority.
A playlist must have at least one content item and at least one screen assigned (or a property condition that matches at least one screen) before it can be published.
Saving a playlist saves a draft. Publishing pushes it live to your screens immediately.
How to create and publish a playlist
This opens the playlist editor - a four-step modal where you build your playlist before publishing it:
Give your playlist a name in the title field at the top left of the editor, then work through the four steps below.
Step 1: Add your content
The Content step is where you choose what will play on your screens. The left panel shows your selected content; the right panel is your content browser.
Selecting a content source
The dropdown button at the top left of the right panel (e.g., "Media") controls which content source you're browsing:
Click it to switch between:
Media - images and videos from your Fugo media library
Dashboards - any dashboards you've built in Fugo (count shown)
Apps - Fugo app integrations, e.g. weather, social media, data boards (count shown)
Studio - custom slides & presentations you've built in the Design Studio
Browsing and filtering
Next to the source dropdown, the toolbar gives you three more controls:
Search (magnifying glass icon) - search items by name within the selected source
All Types filter - for Media, filter by All Types, Images, or Videos
Sort sort by Date Created, Name, or Size; toggle ascending/descending
For Media, the right panel shows your library as a folder grid. Click into a folder to browse its contents. Breadcrumb navigation at the top lets you move back up through your folder structure:
Adding content
Click the + button on any item to add it to the playlist:
You can also use the checkboxes to select multiple items, then click Add all to add them all at once.
Managing selected content
Once added, items appear in the left panel. Each shows a thumbnail, name, content type badge, and duration:
From here you can:
Drag items to reorder them in the playlist
Click ✕ to remove an item or Clear all to remove all items
Click the item's settings icon to open the configuration options
💡 App settings: The settings icon on app card will open the app's settings in a modal. That's because apps require configuration beyond duration, rotation, and screen fit.
For example, third party integrations like Power BI may require you to log into an account before selecting & configuring your content:
Setting content duration
Duration controls how long each item displays before the playlist moves to the next one. It applies whenever your screen is cycling through multiple content items - whether that's multiple items in one playlist, or multiple playlists scheduled on the same screen.
If a single item is running on its own (for example, a live dashboard or an app that continually auto-updates), duration doesn't affect playback - the content simply refreshes based on the interval you set for it.
To adjust an item's duration, click the settings icon on its card in the left panel:
Step 2: Assign your screens
The Screens step is where you choose which screens will play this playlist. The left panel shows your assigned screens; the right panel is your screen browser.
Screens are shown in table view, with screens arranged in rows of screen tiles. You can use the search, filter, sort, group by and column controls to better organize your view here or find screens faster:
You have three ways to assign screens - you can use any combination of them in a single playlist:
Individual screens
Click the screen's tile to add it to the playlist. Multi-select screens via the radio buttons and click Add all or click the select-all button to add multiple screens in one go.
To remove a screen, click ✕ on its card. Click Clear all to remove all screens from this playlist.
Screen groups
If you've organized your screens into groups, you can assign an entire group at once. The playlist will play on every screen in that group.
ℹ️ Note: Screen groups are a feature of the legacy CMS. If you haven't created screen groups in the old CMS, you will not have any groups available in the Fugo CMS 2.0.
To bulk publish to multiple screens at once, use the publish by property feature instead (described below 👇 )
Publish by property
The most powerful option - and the easiest way to manage large or growing networks. Instead of assigning screens one by one, you target screens by a property value (for example, location = London or type = lobby).
Any screen currently matching that property receives the playlist automatically. Any screen added to your network in the future with the same property will start receiving the playlist without any manual steps.
This is ideal for:
Keeping all regional screens in sync without managing lists
Publishing to a screen type (e.g. all lobby screens) across multiple locations
Onboarding new screens into existing playlists automatically
Here's how to use it:
1. Switch to the By Property tab
2. Select your property from the property drop-down menu.
3. Select your property values from the available list.
👉 Learn more about creating custom screen properties here in our screen management guide.
💡 Tip: A playlist with no screens assigned - and no property conditions set - will be saved as a draft but cannot be published. The Publish button stays disabled until at least one screen, group, or property condition is added.
Step 3: Set a schedule (optional)
The Schedule step lets you control when this playlist plays.
The left panel shows a live summary of your current schedule. The right panel is where you configure it, and updates its status header dynamically - showing either Default Schedule Active or Custom Schedule Active along with a plain-language summary of the active date range:
By default, if you don't configure anything here, the playlist runs 24/7 on all assigned screens once published.
Date range
Under Set Date Range, you can restrict the playlist to a specific window of time:
Start Date - when the playlist begins playing
Toggle Set end date on to add an End Date (when it will expire). Once this date passes, the playlist status changes to Expired and it stops playing on all screens
Without an end date set, the playlist runs indefinitely from the start date until you unpublish it.
Weekly schedule
The Set Weekly Schedule tile lets you restrict playback to specific days and times within each week. Its subtitle shows a live summary of the current state (e.g. "All days, all hours" when no block has been added yet).
Click the Set Weekly Schedule tile to expand it, then:
Under Select Days, click the day buttons to choose which days of the week apply (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun)
Set a Start Time and End Time. Click + Add Time Block when you're done to add it.
The block is saved and appears in the left panel summary and the right panel Active Time Blocks list:
You can add multiple blocks for different day/time combinations.
Click ✕ on any block to remove it, or Clear all to remove them all:
💡 Tip: Date range and weekly schedule work independently or together. A date range alone plays all day every day within that period. Add weekly blocks to further restrict which hours it plays. Combine both for precise control — e.g. "Wed–Sun, 9am–5pm, March through April."
Step 4: Preview, save & publish
The Preview step gives you a read-only overview of your complete playlist - content, screens, and schedule - before you commit.
If you haven't yet, give your playlist a name and when you're ready, use the action buttons in the editor header:
Save and Publish - saves and pushes live in one click (shown when a published playlist has unsaved changes).
Save - saves your work as a draft. The playlist won't play on screens yet.
Reset - clears all your playlist settings
Once saved or published, your playlist will be listed as a card on your Playlists page in either the PUBLISHED or DRAFT list:
Playlist statuses explained
Every playlist has a status badge that tells you exactly where it stands:
Live - the playlist is published and currently playing the latest version on its assigned screens.
Outdated - the playlist is published and playing, but you've made changes that haven't been published yet. The screens are showing the old version until you hit Save and Publish.
Draft - the playlist has never been published, or was unpublished. It is not playing on any screens.
Expiring - the playlist is live but its end date is within the next 3 days. Take action soon if you want it to keep playing.
Expired - the playlist's end date has passed. It has stopped playing on all screens.
Two additional indicators flag configuration issues:
No Screens - the playlist has no screens assigned and cannot be published.
No Content - the playlist has no content items and cannot be published.
Managing playlists from the Playlists page
The Playlists page shows all your playlists in a card grid. Each card displays the playlist name, total duration, number of assigned screens, and a status badge.
Click any card to open the info panel on the right. Click the Edit (pencil) icon on a card or in the info panel to open the full editor.
Filtering, sorting & grouping
Use the toolbar above the grid to find and organize your playlists:
Search - type to filter by playlist name.
Filter - narrow the grid by status: All Playlists, Published, Draft, Expired, No Content, or No Screens.
Sort - sort by Name, Date, or Status, in ascending or descending order.
Group by - group cards by Status, Screens, Content, or None.
The playlist info panel & editing a playlist
Clicking a playlist card opens the info panel on the right side of the screen. It gives you a quick summary without opening the full editor:
Preview - a thumbnail grid showing the content in the playlist.
Screens - the screens this playlist is assigned to, with resolution info. Expand to see all.
Content - the content items in the playlist with type badges and durations. Expand to see all.
Details - status badge, total duration, start date, end date (or "No end date"), created, and last updated timestamps.
From the info panel you can also:
Edit - open the full playlist editor.
Publish / Unpublish - toggle the playlist live or offline without opening the editor.
Duplicate - create a copy of the playlist.
Delete - permanently delete the playlist (with a confirmation dialog).
Bulk actions
To act on multiple playlists at once, use the checkboxes on the playlist cards to select them. A bulk actions bar appears at the bottom of the screen showing:
How many playlists are selected
Publish - publish all selected playlists (shown if not all selected are already published)
Unpublish - unpublish all selected playlists (shown if not all selected are already unpublished)
Duplicate - create copies of all selected playlists
Delete - permanently delete all selected playlists
Publishing & unpublishing in bulk: When you publish or unpublish multiple playlists at once, a confirmation dialog will tell you how many playlists will be affected and warn you that screens will start or stop playing immediately.
Need more help?
If you run into any issues or have questions about playlists, our support team is here to help. Use the chat bubble in the bottom right corner of the screen to start a conversation or reach out to support@fugo.ai.