Activities

YouTube has deprecated the channel bulletin feature. The activities.list method does not still return channel bulletins, and the activities.insert method is no longer supported. For more details, please see the YouTube Help Center.

An activity resource contains information about an action that a particular channel, or user, has taken on YouTube. The actions reported in activity feeds include rating a video, sharing a video, marking a video as a favorite, uploading a video, and so forth. Each activity resource identifies the type of action, the channel associated with the action, and the resource(s) associated with the action, such as the video that was rated or uploaded.

Methods

The API supports the following methods for activities resources:

list
Returns a list of channel activity events that match the request criteria. For example, you can retrieve events associated with a particular channel or with the user's own channel. Try it now.

The activities.insert method is no longer supported.

Resource representation

The following JSON structure shows the format of an activities resource:

{
  "kind": "youtube#activity",
  "etag": etag,
  "id": string,
  "snippet": {
    "publishedAt": datetime,
    "channelId": string,
    "title": string,
    "description": string,
    "thumbnails": {
      (key): {
        "url": string,
        "width": unsigned integer,
        "height": unsigned integer
      }
    },
    "channelTitle": string,
    "type": string,
    "groupId": string
  },
  "contentDetails": {
    "upload": {
      "videoId": string
    },
    "like": {
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
      }
    },
    "favorite": {
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
      }
    },
    "comment": {
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
        "channelId": string,
      }
    },
    "subscription": {
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "channelId": string,
      }
    },
    "playlistItem": {
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
      },
      "playlistId": string,
      "playlistItemId": string
    },
    "recommendation": {
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
        "channelId": string,
      },
      "reason": string,
      "seedResourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
        "channelId": string,
        "playlistId": string
      }
    },
    "social": {
      "type": string,
      "resourceId": {
        "kind": string,
        "videoId": string,
        "channelId": string,
        "playlistId": string
      },
      "author": string,
      "referenceUrl": string,
      "imageUrl": string
    },
    "channelItem": {
      "resourceId": {
      }
    },
  }
}

Properties

The following table defines the properties that appear in this resource:

Properties
kind string
Identifies the API resource's type. The value will be youtube#activity.
etag etag
The Etag of this resource.
id string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the activity.
snippet object
The snippet object contains basic details about the activity, including the activity's type and group ID.
snippet.publishedAt datetime
The date and time that the activity occurred. The value is specified in ISO 8601 format.
snippet.channelId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel associated with the activity.
snippet.title string
The title of the resource primarily associated with the activity.
snippet.description string
The description of the resource primarily associated with the activity.
snippet.thumbnails object
A map of thumbnail images associated with the resource that is primarily associated with the activity. For each object in the map, the key is the name of the thumbnail image, and the value is an object that contains other information about the thumbnail.
snippet.thumbnails.(key) object
Valid key values are:
  • default – The default thumbnail image. The default thumbnail for a video – or a resource that refers to a video, such as a playlist item or search result – is 120px wide and 90px tall. The default thumbnail for a channel is 88px wide and 88px tall.
  • medium – A higher resolution version of the thumbnail image. For a video (or a resource that refers to a video), this image is 320px wide and 180px tall. For a channel, this image is 240px wide and 240px tall.
  • high – A high resolution version of the thumbnail image. For a video (or a resource that refers to a video), this image is 480px wide and 360px tall. For a channel, this image is 800px wide and 800px tall.
  • standard – An even higher resolution version of the thumbnail image than the high resolution image. This image is available for some videos and other resources that refer to videos, like playlist items or search results. This image is 640px wide and 480px tall.
  • maxres – The highest resolution version of the thumbnail image. This image size is available for some videos and other resources that refer to videos, like playlist items or search results. This image is 1280px wide and 720px tall.
snippet.thumbnails.(key).url string
The image's URL.
snippet.thumbnails.(key).width unsigned integer
The image's width.
snippet.thumbnails.(key).height unsigned integer
The image's height.
snippet.channelTitle string
Channel title for the channel responsible for this activity
snippet.type string
The type of activity that the resource describes.

Valid values for this property are:
  • channelItem
  • comment – (not currently returned)
  • favorite
  • like
  • playlistItem
  • promotedItem
  • recommendation
  • social
  • subscription
  • upload
  • bulletin (deprecated)
snippet.groupId string
The group ID associated with the activity. A group ID identifies user events that are associated with the same user and resource. For example, if a user rates a video and marks the same video as a favorite, the entries for those events would have the same group ID in the user's activity feed. In your user interface, you can avoid repetition by grouping events with the same groupId value.
contentDetails object
The contentDetails object contains information about the content associated with the activity. For example, if the snippet.type value is videoRated, then the contentDetails object's content identifies the rated video.
contentDetails.upload object
The upload object contains information about the uploaded video. This property is only present if the snippet.type is upload.
contentDetails.upload.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the uploaded video.
contentDetails.like object
The like object contains information about a resource that received a positive (like) rating. This property is only present if the snippet.type is like.
contentDetails.like.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the rated resource.
contentDetails.like.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.like.resourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the video, if the rated resource is a video. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#video.
contentDetails.favorite object
The favorite object contains information about a video that was marked as a favorite video. This property is only present if the snippet.type is favorite.
contentDetails.favorite.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the resource that was marked as a favorite.
contentDetails.favorite.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.favorite.resourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the favorite video. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#video.

Note: The activities.list method does not currently return resources for new comments.
contentDetails.comment object
The comment object contains information about a resource that received a comment. This property is only present if the snippet.type is comment.
contentDetails.comment.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the resource associated with the comment.
contentDetails.comment.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.comment.resourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the video associated with a comment. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#video.
contentDetails.comment.resourceId.channelId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel associated with a comment. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#channel.
contentDetails.subscription object
The subscription object contains information about a channel that a user subscribed to. This property is only present if the snippet.type is subscription.
contentDetails.subscription.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the resource that the user subscribed to.
contentDetails.subscription.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.subscription.resourceId.channelId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel that the user subscribed to. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#channel.
contentDetails.playlistItem object
The playlistItem object contains information about a new playlist item. This property is only present if the snippet.type is playlistItem.
contentDetails.playlistItem.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the resource that was added to the playlist.
contentDetails.playlistItem.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.playlistItem.resourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the video that was added to the playlist. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#video.
contentDetails.playlistItem.playlistId string
The value that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the playlist.
contentDetails.playlistItem.playlistItemId string
The value that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the item in the playlist.
contentDetails.recommendation object
The recommendation object contains information about a recommended resource. This property is only present if the snippet.type is recommendation.
contentDetails.recommendation.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the recommended resource.
contentDetails.recommendation.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.recommendation.resourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the video, if the recommended resource is a video. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#video.
contentDetails.recommendation.resourceId.channelId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel, if the recommended resource is a channel. This property is only present if the resourceId.kind is youtube#channel.
contentDetails.recommendation.reason string
The reason that the resource is recommended to the user.

Valid values for this property are:
  • videoFavorited
  • videoLiked
  • videoWatched
contentDetails.recommendation.seedResourceId object
The seedResourceId object contains information about the resource that caused the recommendation.
contentDetails.recommendation.seedResourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.recommendation.seedResourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the video, if the recommendation was caused by a particular video. This property is only present if the seedResourceId.kind is youtube#video.
contentDetails.recommendation.seedResourceId.channelId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel, if the recommendation was caused by a particular channel. This property is only present if the seedResourceId.kind is youtube#channel.
contentDetails.recommendation.seedResourceId.playlistId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the playlist, if the recommendation was caused by a particular playlist. This property is only present if the seedResourceId.kind is youtube#playlist.
contentDetails.social object
The social object contains details about a social network post. This property is only present if the snippet.type is social.
contentDetails.social.type string
The name of the social network.

Valid values for this property are:
  • facebook
  • googlePlus
  • twitter
  • unspecified
contentDetails.social.resourceId object
The resourceId object encapsulates information that identifies the resource associated with a social network post.
contentDetails.social.resourceId.kind string
The type of the API resource.
contentDetails.social.resourceId.videoId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the video featured in a social network post, if the post refers to a video. This property will only be present if the value of the social.resourceId.kind property is youtube#video.
contentDetails.social.resourceId.channelId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the channel featured in a social network post, if the post refers to a channel. This property will only be present if the value of the social.resourceId.kind property is youtube#channel.
contentDetails.social.resourceId.playlistId string
The ID that YouTube uses to uniquely identify the playlist featured in a social network post, if the post refers to a playlist. This property will only be present if the value of the social.resourceId.kind property is youtube#playlist.
contentDetails.social.author string
The author of the social network post.
contentDetails.social.referenceUrl string
The URL of the social network post.
contentDetails.social.imageUrl string
An image of the post's author.
contentDetails.channelItem object
The channelItem object contains details about a resource that was added to a channel. This property is only present if the snippet.type is channelItem.
contentDetails.channelItem.resourceId object
The resourceId object contains information that identifies the resource that was added to the channel.