How to know if a youtube thumbnail is a custom thumbnail

2
votes

Using youtube.videos.list you can find a video's thumbnails http://img.youtube.com/vi/bQVoAWSP7k4/0.jpg

I know others have been able to identify whether a thumbnail is a custom uploaded thumbnail vs a generated thumbnail (youtube randomly selects a frame from your video and uses that as your thumbnail), I just don't know how.

ps. I compared two videos and didn't notice a change in pattern in the path

1
youtube-apiyoutube-data-api
If your account is verified, you may have the ability to upload custom thumbnails for your video uploads. It is also stated in this article that custom thumbnails are typically well framed, in-focus, and center on a specific subject (e.g. the main character in the video). You may also check this thread which might help. – abielita
In each video object, there's a property contentDetails.hasCustomThumbnail. Only the video uploader can see it though. Is this what you're looking for? – approxiblue
@approxiblue thank you very much. which you'd posted it as an answer :-D thanks a tonne – vvMINOvv

1 Answers

3
votes

Sadly you can't load the thumbnail information and get a boolean to see if the thumbnail is custom. But(!) you can see that in the video properties. There is contentDetails.hasCustomThumbnail which can tell you if the Thumbnail is a custom one.

See this Documentation to get closer Infos about the video properties. Unfortunately, this can only be seen by the Uploader of that Video. So sadly, there is no "easy" way to get that information. I personally try to look if the Thumbnail is high res. If so, its mostly custom.

But feel free to check this guys problem. This could give you a workaround!