Youtube View Generator

A tool that sends automated browser traffic to YouTube videos - with screenshot proof that videos actually started playing!

What makes this different?

Unlike other tools, this Actor captures screenshots of each visit so you can verify the video actually loaded and started playing. You get visual proof for every automated visit! Optionally, you can even capture screenshots when the video pauses to prove the full viewing experience.

What is this?

This tool uses automated browsers to visit YouTube videos. Each browser session:

• Opens the video and plays it for your chosen duration
• Takes screenshots before and after the video starts playing (and optionally when paused)
• Saves the screenshots so you can see proof of each visit
• Acts like a real browser with mouse movements, scrolling, and natural delays

Think of it like having computer programs that open web browsers, play videos, and take photos to prove it happened!

⚠️ Responsible Use

Please use this tool responsibly. This Actor is intended for educational and testing purposes. When using automated tools to interact with online platforms:

• Use it only on your own content or with proper permission
• Be aware that excessive automated activity may be detected by YouTube
• Respect YouTube's Terms of Service and community guidelines
• The creators of this tool are not responsible for how you choose to use it

This is a powerful automation tool - please use it ethically and responsibly.

How to use it?

It's simple:

1. Provide the YouTube video link
2. Choose how many automated visits you want (like 10 or 20)
3. Start the Actor and it will run the automated browsers

The tool will automatically open browsers and navigate to your video links.

How does it work?

This tool launches automated web browsers that visit YouTube videos. Each browser session uses different settings to simulate variety.

🤖 Each Browser Session is Different

Every automated visit uses different browser characteristics:

• Different browser fingerprints - Each browser has unique settings (screen size, device type, etc.)
• Different IP addresses - Each visit comes from a different location using proxies
• Varied behavior patterns - The browsers include random delays, scrolling, and mouse movements

🎬 What Happens During Each Visit?

Here's the step-by-step process:

1. Opens a browser: Launches a fresh browser instance (like opening Firefox)
2. Connects through proxy: Uses a proxy server to connect from a different IP address
3. Navigates to video: Goes to the YouTube video URL
4. Simulates interaction:
   • Adds random delays between actions
   • Moves the mouse cursor around
   • Scrolls the page occasionally
   • Randomly pauses and resumes the video (like a real person would)
   • Varies the viewing time
5. Plays the video: Lets the video play for the configured duration (default 2 minutes)

Technical note: Each browser session has unique characteristics and connects from a different IP address to provide test traffic variety.

What can you configure?

You can customize these settings:

• Video Link (required): The YouTube video URL to test
• Number of visits (optional, default: 10): How many automated browser sessions to run
• Watch time (optional, default: 120 seconds): How long each browser plays the video (minimum 30 seconds)
• Randomize watch time (optional, default: ON): Adds random variation to watch time (±10-30 seconds) so each visit is slightly different
• Random pause during playback (optional, default: OFF): Randomly pauses the video during playback for 3-8 seconds, then resumes. Each view gets a unique pause timing, simulating natural human behavior
• Capture screenshot when pausing (optional, default: OFF): Takes a screenshot while the video is paused to provide visual proof. Only works if "Random pause during playback" is enabled
• Capture screenshots (optional, default: ON): Captures screenshots of the page before and after the video starts playing
• Number of browsers (optional, default: 2): How many browsers run at the same time. Keep this low (2-3) to avoid overloading resources
• Proxy configuration (optional, has defaults): Settings for routing traffic through different IP addresses

Important Things to Know

• Views take time to appear: YouTube may take up to 24 hours to update view counts
• YouTube filters automated traffic: YouTube has systems to detect and filter automated visits, so not all may be counted
• Start small for testing: Running many automated visits quickly may trigger detection systems
• Proxies are required: The tool needs proxies to connect from different IP addresses for each session
• Watch time matters: Longer viewing sessions (2+ minutes) provide better test data than very short ones (30 seconds)
• Resource usage: Each browser session uses computational resources, so keep concurrent browsers low (2-3)

Technical Details

This Actor is built with:

• Crawlee's PlaywrightCrawler - A web automation framework for managing browser sessions
• Playwright - A browser automation library that controls Firefox, Chrome, or other browsers
• Anti-detection features:
  • Each browser has different fingerprint characteristics
  • Stealth scripts to modify browser properties
  • Random behavior patterns (delays, scrolling, mouse movement)
  • Proxy rotation for different IP addresses

How It Works Technically

The Actor uses a separate browser for each visit:

• Each visit launches a fresh browser with unique settings
• Proxies rotate so each visit comes from a different IP address
• No cookies or data is shared between browser sessions
• Random human-like behaviors are added (delays, scrolling, mouse movements, pausing)

Resource Usage: This tool uses more computing resources than regular web scrapers because it launches a full browser for each visit. This is necessary for the automated testing approach.

Browser Features

Each browser session includes:

• ✅ Unique IP address (via proxy rotation)
• ✅ Different browser fingerprint (randomized settings)
• ✅ Varied interaction patterns (random delays and movements)
• ✅ Configurable viewing duration (watch time)

These features help create diverse test traffic from different simulated sources.

Resources

If you're looking for examples or want to learn more visit:

• Crawlee + Apify Platform guide
• Documentation and examples
• Node.js tutorials in Academy
• Scraping single-page applications with Playwright
• How to scale Puppeteer and Playwright
• Integration with Zapier, Make, GitHub, Google Drive and other apps
• Video guide on getting data using Apify API
• A short guide on how to create Actors using code templates:

Getting started

For complete information see this article. In short, you will:

1. Build the Actor
2. Run the Actor

Pull the Actor for local development

If you would like to develop locally, you can pull the existing Actor from Apify console using Apify CLI:

1. Install apify-cli

   Using Homebrew

   $brew install apify-cli
   

   Using NPM

   $npm -g install apify-cli
   

2. Pull the Actor by its unique <ActorId>, which is one of the following:

   • unique name of the Actor to pull (e.g. "apify/hello-world")
   • or ID of the Actor to pull (e.g. "E2jjCZBezvAZnX8Rb")

   You can find both by clicking on the Actor title at the top of the page, which will open a modal containing both Actor unique name and Actor ID.

   This command will copy the Actor into the current directory on your local machine.

   $apify pull <ActorId>
   

Documentation reference

To learn more about Apify and Actors, take a look at the following resources:

• Apify SDK for JavaScript documentation
• Apify SDK for Python documentation
• Apify Platform documentation
• Join our developer community on Discord