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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- YouTube stopped remark emails, hurting engagement workflows.
- Gemini helped rebuild alerts utilizing a easy Python script.
- AI makes one-off automation initiatives quick and sensible.
Feedback are the lifeblood of YouTube video engagement. Feedback assist creators interact their viewers. They’re additionally a sign to The Algorithm that viewers are engaged.
YouTube prioritizes engaged viewers, so the extra feedback, the higher. The most effective methods to make sure extra common feedback is for the video producer to answer readers rapidly and clearly.
Till the center of final 12 months, YouTube despatched out an e mail at any time when a viewer commented on a video. That was my set off. If I acquired an e mail saying that I had a remark, I clicked in and responded.
However on the finish of June, YouTube quietly turned off that very useful function. The one manner I knew for positive that it wasn’t a glitch on my finish was a publish buried on X from Group YouTube.
So, e mail notifications are not any extra. There are different approaches. Most social community administration instruments embrace YouTube as a social community. You’ll be able to log in to a social-network supervisor and take a look at what feedback should be dealt with, in the identical manner you possibly can verify if there are mentions of your organization on X, Fb, or Instagram.
Sadly, it rapidly turned obvious that this various situation did not work for me. I am not referred to as to motion by social media managers. I am referred to as to motion by particular emails that land in folders I verify each day. I dwell in e mail, so this makes probably the most sense for my work fashion.
In a traditional world, it would not have mattered what works greatest for me. You takes what you are given, and also you loves it, proper? However that is no regular world. That is ‘The Age of AI.’ And the place there’s AI, something is feasible.
Earlier than I am going on, I wish to apologize to anybody who might need left a touch upon my YouTube channel. I usually make it a precedence to reply, however since I wasn’t getting e mail notifications, I simply assumed I wasn’t getting any feedback. That is now been mounted, so in case you remark now, I will know. Learn on to find out how.
So I AI’d me an answer
I MacGyvered a hack utilizing Gemini. That is the magical factor about AI. You’ll be able to typically use it to resolve issues that beforehand would have been impractical or unattainable.
Take this notification challenge. YouTube does have API calls that make constructing one thing to resolve this downside doable, however you’d have to jot down some recent code. I am a ok programmer that I am positive I may have executed so.
Within the pre-AI world, I may have, however I would not have. That is as a result of I haven’t got the free time to justify a single-purpose use programming challenge that may take me three or 4 weekends to perform (at greatest).
However now, just a few prompts to the AI, and about an hour to hook all the things up, and I’ve a working resolution.
As I stroll you thru how I did this job, please bear in mind how one can AI an answer out of just about something. It isn’t that I anticipate a lot of you’ll need email-based notifications for YouTube feedback. However most of you studying this can wish to create one thing to resolve an issue that you simply alone wish to remedy.
AIs, comparable to Gemini and ChatGPT, can try this work in case you collaborate rigorously. I am utilizing the paid $20/mo Gemini Professional tier for this challenge as a result of Gemini is getting higher and higher, however I may have used ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Copilot.
Is there an API for that?
I first regarded on the user-level options which may have helped me generate notifications. I requested Gemini, “Does YouTube have an RSS feed for feedback?”
I used to be instructed, “No. They really used to supply remark RSS feeds, however that function was completely discontinued again in 2015. Right now, the one native RSS feeds YouTube nonetheless helps are for brand new video uploads, leaving neighborhood interactions utterly out of the loop.”
Then I requested, “What different automated remark notification instruments are there?” I used to be despatched to some business instruments for managing YouTube feedback, however exterior of the e-mail circulation. You log in to a third-party dashboard and handle the feedback. That is not what I wished.
However then I requested the magic query, “Is there any programming interface in any respect to have the ability to monitor and extract YouTube feedback?”
This query resulted in precisely what I wished to listen to: “Sure, there’s an official programming interface offered by Google particularly for this function: the YouTube Knowledge API v3.”
Gemini continued, “That is the very same underlying structure that powers the third-party automation instruments and social media inboxes we mentioned earlier. In case you have some programming data, you possibly can bypass these subscriptions completely and construct your individual customized extraction and monitoring system.”
Then it requested one of the best main query, ever: “Would you like I write a primary instance script in Python that demonstrates easy methods to extract your channel’s feedback?”
Why, sure, I might.
The spec in a single sentence
Here is what I instructed Gemini. I stated, “What would a Python script that does this appear to be? All it must do is ballot each hour to see if there are new feedback after which ship an e mail with hyperlinks to the feedback.”
Gemini then wrote the script for me. The end result requires inserting a free YouTube Knowledge API v3 key from the Google Cloud Console and an app password for my YouTube account, however these are simple to get and use.
Gemini steered, “You’ll be able to run this script immediately in your native laptop, or let it run within the background on an affordable cloud server (like a Raspberry Pi or an AWS EC2 occasion) so it displays your channel 24/7.”
This output triggered an aha second that I confess I hadn’t thought-about. I instructed Gemini, “I’ve a Linux field working a few Docker cases. Can I arrange this Python script within the background working in Docker?”
Despite the fact that I have been coding in Python for a while now, and it is each easy and highly effective, I hadn’t considered making a Docker occasion to run Python scripts routinely.
Simply as a fast background, Docker is a container service. Principally, it is like a digital machine (VM), however with out the machine. While you arrange a VM, you are configuring a complete laptop emulator and a whole working system set up. So, in case you’re working a bunch of VMs, you’ve numerous overhead (and doubtlessly OS licenses) to cope with.
A container service like Docker provides the application-specific layer on high of another working system. You’ll be able to run the identical Docker container on a Linux, Mac, or Home windows laptop, and it’ll usually be joyful. I have been utilizing Docker for article archiving with Karakeep on an previous 2012 Intel Mac mini. This setup has had no efficiency points in any respect.
Earlier than I requested Gemini for configuration tips, I noticed I wished one further function in my code. I wished my Python monitoring script to verify if the YouTube API I am utilizing nonetheless exists and let me know if it not works.
I prompted Gemini, “It is at all times attainable that YouTube will deprecate the API code I am utilizing on this Python script. Prolong the code to incorporate a check for the API’s existence (presumably by a timeout check) that notifies me through e mail if the API is not obtainable. Inform it to attempt just a few instances over the course of a few days earlier than sending me that notification.”
It replied, “To do that, we’re going to change how the script handles community errors. As an alternative of quietly ignoring them, the script will now hold a working tally of consecutive failures. As a result of the script checks each hour, 48 consecutive failures equals precisely two days of the API being unreachable.”
After which it gave me new code.
Hooking all of it up
Getting ready the code concerned filling within the following strains:
YOUTUBE_API_KEY = "YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY" CHANNEL_ID = "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID" EMAIL_PASSWORD = "YOUR_GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD"
For the primary component, I went to the Google Cloud Console and created a brand new challenge. I chosen APIs & Providers, then Libraries, after which selected YouTube Knowledge API v3. All that was wanted was to hit the allow button. There is a Create API key button. Urgent that button created a textual content key I introduced again and pasted into my Python code.
Subsequent up is the Channel ID. That is only a matter of going to the YouTube channel in query, then Settings underneath the profile, visiting Superior Settings, and copying the ID.
Lastly, I went to my Google account administration web page, looked for App Passwords, and created one for this new app.
You do not have to know easy methods to do these steps. I merely instructed Gemini to stroll me by the steps to get these three identifiers, and it did. The AI offered me with step-by-step directions that I adopted to get the job executed.
Subsequent, it was time to hook all the things to my Docker occasion, managed by Portainer, a Docker administration device. I as soon as once more used Gemini to information me by the steps. Along with the Python code, Gemini had me create a really small necessities file and the Docker file, which defines the Docker occasion.
Then Gemini gave me just a few command-line directions to kind in and run. There have been just a few back-and-forth interactions the place I instructed Gemini what was on the display, grabbed a screenshot, after which adopted Gemini’s directions.
After a couple of minutes, I had my Docker occasion up and working, and an energetic comment-monitoring system. If you wish to take a look at what Gemini constructed, I posted the Python code to GitHub. Be happy to make use of it, however please do not ask me for tech assist. I constructed this rapidly for my very own use. In case you need assistance, I would advocate you attain out to Gemini.
So does it work?
Sure, it does. The app checks for feedback as soon as an hour. This morning, I had this message in my e mail:
That is precisely what I wished. You’ll be able to definitely run a challenge like this with Claude or ChatGPT. That is the primary time I’ve taken Gemini all the best way from thought to an entire, working challenge. I’ve to say that I used to be impressed through the use of Gemini 3.1 and the Professional account.
The AI answered all my questions, interacted clearly with no hallucinations, and in much less time than it took me to jot down this text, I constructed a customized Python-based resolution for my YouTube channel.
I’m severely stoked.
You’ll be able to observe my day-to-day challenge updates on social media. Be sure you subscribe to my weekly replace publication, and observe me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Fb at Fb.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, on Bluesky at @DavidGewirtz.com, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.
