1. YouTube API key
The app reads channel uploads through the free YouTube Data API. The key is kept only in this browser.
How to get a key (about 5 minutes)
- Open Google Cloud Console and create a project (any name).
- Enable the YouTube Data API v3 for that project.
- Go to Credentials → Create credentials → API key.
- Recommended: edit the key → API restrictions → restrict it to YouTube Data API v3.
- Paste it below. The free quota (10,000 units a day) is plenty: a sync costs about 2–3 units per channel.
2. Import your subscriptions
Pick whichever is easiest. You can use more than one; duplicates are ignored.
Option A – Google Takeout file (no extra setup)
Go to takeout.google.com, click Deselect all, tick YouTube and YouTube Music, under “All YouTube data included” choose only subscriptions (and history if you want the Takeout option in step 4). Export, unzip, then choose subscriptions/subscriptions.csv:
Option B – Paste channels
One per line: channel URLs, @handles or channel IDs (UC…).
Option C – Sign in with Google
Needs an OAuth client ID from the same Cloud project: Credentials → Create credentials → OAuth client ID → Web application, with as an Authorized JavaScript origin. Set up the OAuth consent screen as “External” and add yourself as a test user.
Option D – Public subscriptions
If your subscriptions are set to public, enter your own channel ID (or @handle):
3. Channels & syncing
Shorts are excluded automatically. Later syncs only fetch videos uploaded since the last one.
| Channel | Videos | Last synced | Include |
|---|
4. Import watch progress from YouTube
YouTube's API doesn't share your watch progress, but youtube.com shows it to you as the red bar under each thumbnail. This bookmark reads those bars and brings them into the app, including how far into each video you got.
Set up (once)
Show your browser's bookmarks bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), then drag this button onto it:
Use it
- Go to youtube.com/feed/history while signed in. You can also use a channel's Videos tab to pick up older videos from that channel.
- Click the Grab YouTube progress bookmark. It scrolls down the page on its own to load more videos. Click Stop scrolling once it's gone back far enough.
- Click Send to app. This page opens and imports the progress.
Progress is only ever moved forward: a video already finished here stays finished. The bookmark only reads the page, and nothing leaves your browser.
If "Send to app" doesn't work
Click Copy in the bookmark's box instead, then paste here:
Or: Google Takeout watch history
This only says which videos you watched, not how far. Import history/watch-history.html or .json from Google Takeout. Only videos currently marked unwatched are changed.
5. Backup
Your channels and watch progress live in this browser only. Export a backup to move them to another browser or PC.