Collect videos from a YouTube search

Searches YouTube in the app, switches to the Videos tab so channels and playlists do not clutter the list, and reads each result: title, channel, view count and age. Signed in as you, so age-restricted and members-only results appear the way they do for your account.

Nothing is watched, liked or subscribed to.

Inputs

Run it

run_task({
  "phases": [{
    "launch": "com.google.android.youtube",
    "goal": "In the YouTube app, tap the search icon at the top, type '<query>', and submit. On the results screen tap the Videos filter tab so only videos are listed, then keep scrolling the results. Do not open a video, do not subscribe, like or comment.",
    "steps": ["YouTube is open",
              "Search results for '<query>' are showing",
              "A list of video results about '<query>' is showing"],
    "typeTexts": ["<query>"],
    "maxSteps": 14,
    "collect": {
      "record": "a video in the search results",
      "fields": { "title": "the video title",
                  "channel": "the channel name, if the card shows one",
                  "views": "the view count, if shown",
                  "age": "how long ago it was posted, if shown",
                  "length": "the video length, if shown" },
      "where": "a list of video results about '<query>' is showing",
      "count": <count>
    }
  }]
})

What comes back

result.collected holds one record per video. Descriptions, comments and exact upload dates are on each video's page, which is a separate task per video.

Notes

• The first row is often an ad, labelled Sponsored with a web address. A judge claim such as "the result is an organic video, not a sponsored ad" filters it.
• Result cards expose the video title as a label, but the channel, view count and length are not always separate labels, so those fields can come back empty. The title and the ad labelling are the reliable parts.
• To collect from one channel instead of a search, change the goal to open the channel and its Videos tab, and keep the same collect spec.