It actually really helps that you've uploaded a webp version here. As you posted this, I was busy re-encoding this Ambient Swim video clip to webp to see if webp files work as both animated and non-animated images. I'll post it as soon as it's done.
My posting tool thumbnails large files for quick loading in the feed regardless of client or connection. Webp is almost twice as efficient as jpeg when it comes to file size at sane picture quality.
The source file is still linked in the post body.
Webp can do animations, but not as efficiently as actual video codecs. Better than gif tho.
I tried uploading the 5.7MB webm to Fedia, but it Mbin throws 500 Server Errors when I upload a webm of any type. I ended up uploading a 5.7MB bitcrushed gif, and linking to that 5.7MB webm on Catbox. I hope the Fediverse gets proper webm support soon.
You should also be able to use catbox as the host for the webp file, and still use that link as the main link in the post? I've used this to post small animated images.
Additionally, Lemmy already embeds videos if you link a video file directly, but some mobile clients have trouble.
Supposedly, the next major Lemmy version will come with video upload support.
