Chat Replay Downloader

A simple tool used to retrieve YouTube/Twitch chat from past broadcasts/VODs. No authentication needed!

Requirements:

• This tool was created in a Python 3 environment.
• Run pip install -r requirements.txt to ensure you have the necessary dependencies.

Command line:

Usage

usage: chat_replay_downloader.py [-h] [-start_time START_TIME]
                                 [-end_time END_TIME]
                                 [-message_type {messages,superchat,all}]
                                 [-output OUTPUT]
                                 url

Retrieve YouTube/Twitch chat from past broadcasts/VODs.

positional arguments:
  url                   YouTube/Twitch video URL

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -start_time START_TIME, -from START_TIME
                        start time in seconds or hh:mm:ss
                        (default: 0)
  -end_time END_TIME, -to END_TIME
                        end time in seconds or hh:mm:ss
                        (default: None = until the end)
  -message_type {messages,superchat,all}
                        types of messages to include [YouTube only]
                        (default: messages)
  -output OUTPUT, -o OUTPUT
                        name of output file
                        (default: None = print to standard output)

Examples

1. Output file of all chat messages, given a url

python chat_replay_downloader.py <video_url> -output <file_name>

If the file name ends in .json, the array will be written to the file in JSON format. Similarly, if the file name ends in .csv, the data will be written in CSV format.
Otherwise, the chat messages will be outputted to the file in the following format:
[<time>] <author>: <message>

2. Output file of chat messages, starting at a certain time (in seconds or hh:mm:ss) until the end

python chat_replay_downloader.py <video_url> -start_time <time> -output <file_name>

3. Output file of chat messages, starting from the beginning and ending at a certain time (in seconds or hh:mm:ss)

python chat_replay_downloader.py <video_url> -end_time <time> -output <file_name>

4. Output file of chat messages, starting and ending at certain times (in seconds or hh:mm:ss)

python chat_replay_downloader.py <video_url> -start_time <time> -end_time <time> -output <file_name>

Example outputs

JSON Example:

python chat_replay_downloader.py https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMsvr55cTZ0 -start_time 14400 -end_time 15000 -output example.json

CSV Example:

python chat_replay_downloader.py https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMsvr55cTZ0 -start_time 14400 -end_time 15000 -output example.csv

Text Example:

python chat_replay_downloader.py https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMsvr55cTZ0 -start_time 14400 -end_time 15000 -output example.txt

Python module

Importing the module

import chat_replay_downloader

or

from chat_replay_downloader import get_chat_replay, get_youtube_messages, get_twitch_messages

The following examples will use the second form of importing.

Examples

1. Return list of all chat messages, given a video url:

youtube_messages = get_chat_replay('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxxxxx')
twitch_messages = get_chat_replay('https://www.twitch.tv/videos/xxxxxxxxx')

2. Return list of all chat messages, given a video id

youtube_messages = get_youtube_messages('xxxxxxxxxxx')
twitch_messages = get_twitch_messages('xxxxxxxxx')

The following examples use parameters which all three methods (get_chat_replay, get_youtube_messages, get_twitch_messages) have. Both of the following parameters are optional:

• start_time: start time in seconds or hh:mm:ss (Default is 0, which is the start of the video)
• end_time: end time in seconds or hh:mm:ss (Default is None, which means it will continue until the video ends)

3. Return list of chat messages, starting at a certain time (in seconds or hh:mm:ss)

messages = get_chat_replay('video_url', start_time = 60) # Start at 60 seconds and continue until the end

4. Return list of chat messages, ending at a certain time (in seconds or hh:mm:ss)

messages = get_chat_replay('video_url', end_time = 60) # Start at 0 seconds (beginning) and end at 60 seconds

5. Return list of chat messages, starting and ending at certain times (in seconds or hh:mm:ss)

messages = get_chat_replay('video_url', start_time = 60, end_time = 120) # Start at 60 seconds and end at 120 seconds