Is there any way to get the live chat replay log/history for YouTube streaming video?

Question

I’ve been doing research on online chat message patterns recently. I’ve chosen YouTube and Twitch.tv for the chat message sources.

I’ve found chat loggers for real-time livestreams, but I also need acquire the chat log/history for already broadcasted livestreams which allow live chat replay (for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfohG5a8y8).

There is a tool for Twitch.tv (RechatTool from jdpurcell), but I couldn’t find any similar tool for YouTube.

I’ve checked YouTube API for livestream messages, but I couldn’t find any instructions or tips on how to access live chat replays. Is there any possible solutions for this?

Answer 1

Chat Downloader is a tool I developed to retrieve chat messages from livestreams, videos, clips and past broadcasts. No authentication needed!

The recommended way to install is from PyPI using pip:

pip install chat-downloader 

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The program can then be accessed from the command line or using the Python module:

Command line

chat_downloader https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A 

For advanced command line use-cases and examples, consult the Command Line Wiki.

Python

from chat_downloader import ChatDownloader  url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A' chat = ChatDownloader().get_chat(url)       # create a generator for message in chat:                        # iterate over messages     print(chat.format(message))             # print the formatted message 

For advanced python use-cases and examples, consult the Python Wiki.

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Features include specifying start and/or end times and outputting to JSON, CSV and text files.

The software is open-source (MIT license) and is actively under development. The source code can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/xenova/chat-downloader