YouTube API Services - Subject API Services

Note: Complying with the YouTube Developer Policies provides guidance and examples to help you ensure that your API clients follow specific portions of the YouTube API Services Terms and Policies (API TOS). The guide offers insight into how YouTube enforces certain aspects of the API TOS, but it does not replace any existing documents.

The YouTube API Services Terms of Service (the "Terms") state (in Section 14) that when YouTube intends to make backward-incompatible changes to YouTube API services, YouTube will announce those changes and try to continue to maintain the software code for six months after the announcement.

This page identifies the Subject API Services referenced in section 14.3 (Special Terms) of the Terms and explains how that section of the Terms affects actual deprecation dates. Prior to February 10, 2017, which is the effective date of the current Terms, the Subject API Services had been subject to a one-year deprecation policy under the previous set of Terms. To honor that policy, the Subject API Services are, temporarily, subject to different deprecation rules than other services.

Understanding deprecation dates

In the event of backward-incompatible changes to Subject API Services, YouTube will use reasonable efforts to maintain code until at least February 10, 2018, which is one year after these Terms became effective. For other services, YouTube will try to continue to maintain the software code for six months from the date those changes are announced.

Exemptions

Some features of Subject API Services are not subject to the rules defined in Section 14.3 of the Terms because those features were also not subject to the deprecation policy defined under the prior set of Terms. Those features are identified as exemptions in the list of subject services below.

When an exemption applies to an object property, it also applies to any of that property's child properties. In addition, the exemption applies to the ability to retrieve, set, modify, or delete values of the property or its child properties as well as to the property values themselves.

Subject API Services

The following sections define the Subject API Services. For completeness, these sections also identify fully deprecated API services. Those fully deprecated services are not covered under the Terms.

YouTube Data API, v3

Documentation
Exemptions
- The following channel resource properties:
- The guideCategory resource and its methods.
- The search.list method's safeSearch parameter and its values.
- The video resource's status.publishAt property.

YouTube IFrame Player API

Documentation

YouTube Reporting API

Documentation
Exemptions
- Non-core dimensions. (See the dimension definitions to determine whether individual dimensions are considered core dimensions.)
- Non-core metrics. (See the metric definitions to determine whether individual metrics are considered core metrics.)

YouTube Analytics API

Documentation
Exemptions
- Non-core dimensions. (See the dimension definitions to determine whether individual dimensions are considered core dimensions.)
- Non-core metrics. (See the metric definitions to determine whether individual metrics are considered core metrics.)

Fully deprecated API Services

The following API services are fully deprecated. They were subject to the deprecation policy set forth in the Original Terms and the deprecation period has ended. YouTube is neither obligated to announce breaking changes to these services nor to continue supporting them: