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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. Probably the greatest methods to make sure extra common feedback is for the video producer to reply to readers shortly and clearly.
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Till the center of final yr, YouTube despatched out an electronic mail at any time when a viewer commented on a video. That was my set off. If I obtained an electronic 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 approach I knew for positive that it wasn’t a glitch on my finish was a put up buried on X from Staff YouTube.
So, electronic mail notifications are not any extra. There are different approaches. Most social community administration instruments embody YouTube as a social community. You may log in to a social-network supervisor and have a look at what feedback must be dealt with, in the identical approach you’ll be able to test if there are mentions of your organization on X, Fb, or Instagram.
Sadly, it shortly grew to become obvious that this different situation did not work for me. I am not known as to motion by social media managers. I am known as to motion by particular emails that land in folders I test day-after-day. I dwell in electronic mail, so this makes probably the most sense for my work type.
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In a traditional world, it would not have mattered what works finest 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’m going on, I need 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 electronic mail notifications, I simply assumed I wasn’t getting any feedback. That is now been fastened, so should you remark now, I am going to know. Learn on to learn the way.
So I AI’d me an answer
I MacGyvered a hack utilizing Gemini. That is the magical factor about AI. You may typically use it to resolve issues that beforehand would have been impractical or unimaginable.
Take this notification concern. YouTube does have API calls that make constructing one thing to resolve this downside doable, however you’d have to put in writing some recent code. I am a ok programmer that I am positive I may have achieved 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 mission that will take me three or 4 weekends to perform (at finest).
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However now, just a few prompts to the AI, and about an hour to hook every part up, and I’ve a working resolution.
As I stroll you thru how I did this job, please consider how one can AI an answer out of virtually something. It isn’t that I anticipate a lot of you will want email-based notifications for YouTube feedback. However most of you studying it will need to create one thing to resolve an issue that you simply alone need to resolve.
AIs, corresponding to Gemini and ChatGPT, can try this work should you collaborate rigorously. I am utilizing the paid $20/mo Gemini Professional tier for this mission 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 advised, “No. They really used to offer 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 spanking new video uploads, leaving neighborhood interactions utterly out of the loop.”
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Then I requested, “What different automated remark notification instruments are there?” I used to be despatched to a couple business instruments for managing YouTube feedback, however exterior of the e-mail circulate. 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 may be an official programming interface offered by Google particularly for this function: the YouTube Information 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. If in case you have some programming data, you’ll be able to bypass these subscriptions solely and construct your personal customized extraction and monitoring system.”
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Then it requested the very best main query, ever: “Would you like I write a primary instance script in Python that demonstrates how you can extract your channel’s feedback?”
Why, sure, I’d.
The spec in a single sentence
This is what I advised Gemini. I mentioned, “What would a Python script that does this seem like? All it must do is ballot each hour to see if there are new feedback after which ship an electronic mail with hyperlinks to the feedback.”
Gemini then wrote the script for me. The end result requires inserting a free YouTube Information 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 prompt, “You may run this script straight in your native laptop, or let it run within the background on an inexpensive 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 of. I advised Gemini, “I’ve a Linux field operating a few Docker cases. Can I arrange this Python script within the background operating in Docker?”
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Though I have been coding in Python for a while now, and it is each simple and highly effective, I hadn’t considered making a Docker occasion to run Python scripts mechanically.
Simply as a fast background, Docker is a container service. Principally, it is like a digital machine (VM), however with out the machine. If you arrange a VM, you are configuring a whole laptop emulator and a whole working system set up. So, should you’re operating a bunch of VMs, you’ve a whole lot of overhead (and probably OS licenses) to cope with.
A container service like Docker provides the application-specific layer on prime of another working system. You may run the identical Docker container on a Linux, Mac, or Home windows laptop, and it’ll usually be blissful. I have been utilizing Docker for article archiving with Karakeep on an outdated 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 extra function in my code. I wished my Python monitoring script to test if the YouTube API I am utilizing nonetheless exists and let me know if it not works.
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I prompted Gemini, “It is at all times attainable that YouTube will deprecate the API code I am utilizing on this Python script. Lengthen the code to incorporate a take a look at for the API’s existence (probably via a timeout take a look at) that notifies me through electronic mail if the API is not obtainable. Inform it to strive 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 preserve a operating 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 factor, I went to the Google Cloud Console and created a brand new mission. I chosen APIs & Providers, then Libraries, after which selected YouTube Information 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 below 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.
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You do not have to know how you can do these steps. I merely advised Gemini to stroll me via 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 achieved.
Subsequent, it was time to hook every part to my Docker occasion, managed by Portainer, a Docker administration device. I as soon as once more used Gemini to information me via 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 advised 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 operating, 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 at liberty to make use of it, however please do not ask me for tech help. I constructed this shortly for my very own use. In the event 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 electronic mail:
That is precisely what I wished. You may actually run a mission like this with Claude or ChatGPT. That is the primary time I’ve taken Gemini all the way in which from thought to an entire, working mission. 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 put in writing this text, I constructed a customized Python-based resolution for my YouTube channel.
I’m critically stoked.
You may observe my day-to-day mission updates on social media. Make sure to 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.
