Read and change the like status of a YouTube video from your car head unit or another app on your device.
fYT Rating is a free, open-source Android application that shows whether you have liked a YouTube video and lets you like or unlike it, using your own Google account.
It also answers the same two questions for other applications on your device that you have explicitly allowed. That is what it was built for: a car head unit launcher, a home screen widget or a steering wheel remote can display and change your rating without having to handle Google sign-in itself.
YouTube does not tell other applications whether the video playing is liked. It publishes no rating to the Android media session, so anything outside the YouTube app is blind to it. The only reliable source is the YouTube Data API, which requires the account owner's authorisation.
Rather than have every launcher and widget ask for that authorisation separately, fYT Rating asks once and answers on their behalf — but only for applications you have added by hand.
fYT Rating requests a single permission,
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl, and uses it for
exactly two YouTube Data API calls:
| Call | Purpose |
|---|---|
videos.getRating | reads your rating of a video, so it can be shown |
videos.rate | sets your rating when you ask it to |
The narrower read-only permission cannot be used, because
videos.getRating returns the signed-in user's own rating and rejects
it.
Sign-in is handled by Google Play services through Android's standard account picker. The application never sees or asks for your password.
Nothing leaves your device except those two API calls to Google, made on your behalf. There is no server behind this application, no analytics, no advertising, and no data is shared with anyone.
The only things stored on the device are the address of the connected account, the channel name shown next to it, and the list of applications you have allowed. Signing out removes the first two and revokes the authorisation at Google, so the application disappears from your account's connected apps.
The application is open source. The code, releases and technical documentation are on GitHub.
Questions and problems can be raised as an issue in the repository.