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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 tasks quick and sensible.
Feedback are the lifeblood of YouTube video engagement. Feedback assist creators have interaction 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.
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Till the center of final 12 months, YouTube despatched out an e mail each time a viewer commented on a video. That was my set off. If I obtained 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 means I knew for certain that it wasn’t a glitch on my finish was a put up buried on X from Workforce YouTube.
So, e mail notifications aren’t any extra. There are different approaches. Most social community administration instruments embrace YouTube as a social community. You may log in to a social-network supervisor and take a look at what feedback should be dealt with, in the identical means you possibly can test if there are mentions of your organization on X, Fb, or Instagram.
Sadly, it rapidly turned 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 every single day. I reside in e mail, so this makes probably the most sense for my work fashion.
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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 am 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 e mail notifications, I simply assumed I wasn’t getting any feedback. That is now been fastened, so for those who 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 may typically use it to unravel issues that beforehand would have been impractical or not possible.
Take this notification problem. YouTube does have API calls that make constructing one thing to unravel this drawback doable, however you’d have to write down some contemporary code. I am a adequate programmer that I am certain I may have performed 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 might take me three or 4 weekends to perform (at finest).
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However now, a couple of prompts to the AI, and about an hour to hook all the pieces up, and I’ve a working resolution.
As I stroll you thru how I did this job, please take into account how one can AI an answer out of virtually 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 need to create one thing to unravel an issue that you simply alone need to remedy.
AIs, equivalent to Gemini and ChatGPT, can do this work for those who 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 appeared on the user-level options that 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 supply remark RSS feeds, however that function was completely discontinued again in 2015. In the present day, the one native RSS feeds YouTube nonetheless helps are for brand new video uploads, leaving neighborhood interactions fully 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 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 anyway 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 supplied 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. You probably have some programming data, you possibly can bypass these subscriptions fully and construct your personal customized extraction and monitoring system.”
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Then it requested one of the best main query, ever: “Would you like I write a fundamental instance script in Python that demonstrates the best way to extract your channel’s feedback?”
Why, sure, I might.
The spec in a single sentence
Here is what I advised 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 may run this script instantly in your native pc, 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-about. 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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Although 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. Mainly, it is like a digital machine (VM), however with out the machine. Whenever you arrange a VM, you are configuring a complete pc emulator and a complete working system set up. So, for those who’re operating a bunch of VMs, you will have plenty of overhead (and probably OS licenses) to take care of.
A container service like Docker provides the application-specific layer on high of every other working system. You may run the identical Docker container on a Linux, Mac, or Home windows pc, and it’ll usually be pleased. 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 anyway.
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 now not works.
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I prompted Gemini, “It is all the time doable 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 by way of a timeout take a look at) that notifies me by way of e mail if the API is now not obtainable. Inform it to strive a couple of occasions 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 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.
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You do not have to know the best way to do these steps. I merely advised Gemini to stroll me by way of 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 performed.
Subsequent, it was time to hook all the pieces to my Docker occasion, managed by Portainer, a Docker administration instrument. I as soon as once more used Gemini to information me by way of 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 a couple of command-line directions to sort in and run. There have been a couple of 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 rapidly for my very own use. If you happen to need assistance, I might suggest 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 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 a whole, working mission. I’ve to say that I used to be impressed by utilizing 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 write down 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. 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.
