Short answer: Open Learning, click Add additional channels, choose YouTube and click Authorize. Sign in with the Google account that owns your channel (or that is Owner or Admin of its Brand Account), select the channel, tick all permissions and click Connect now. If your channel doesn't show up, see "My channel doesn't show up" below.
Before you start
Only the account owner (team admin) of the brand can connect channels.
Each brand can have one YouTube channel.
You must sign in with a Google account that can act as the channel: the account that owns the channel, or an Owner or Admin of the channel's Brand Account. replient.ai doesn't check your role itself. Google decides which channels it offers you.
⚠️ Important: Access that was given to you inside YouTube Studio (Settings → Permissions, for example as Manager or Editor) is not enough. Google doesn't pass these channel permissions on to tools like replient.ai. The Brand Account role Communications manager can't use YouTube at all.
Step 1: Open the connect dialog
In the sidebar, click Learning. Under Connected social media accounts, click Add additional channels (1).
Step 2: Choose YouTube
In the dialog Add more channels to your brand, click YouTube (1).
Step 3: Authorize and sign in to Google
In the dialog Authorize YouTube, tick the box to accept the terms (1) and click Authorize (2).
Google opens. Select the Google account that manages your channel. If it isn't listed, click Use another account.
If Google asks you to choose between your personal account and a Brand Account, choose the one your YouTube channel belongs to.
Tick all permission boxes and click Continue. If a box stays unticked, the connection fails.
Step 4: Select your channel
Back in replient.ai, the dialog Choose from your authorized accounts opens. Select your channel under Page name: and click Connect now.
replient.ai then imports your recent comments and learns from the replies you already wrote.
My channel doesn't show up
Almost always, Google doesn't offer the channel to the account you signed in with. Work through these checks:
Start clean. Open a private (incognito) window, sign in only with the Google account that manages the channel and connect again.
If Google never shows a channel selection and sends you straight through, you are probably signed in with your personal channel only. Starting clean in a private window fixes that.
Check that the channel exists. A Google account has no YouTube channel until you create one at youtube.com (profile picture → Create channel).
Check whether the channel is in a Brand Account. Sign in to youtube.com as the owner and open youtube.com/account_advanced.
If you see Move channel to a Brand Account, your channel hangs directly on a personal Google account. Only that one Google account can connect it. Either let the owner connect it, or move the channel into a Brand Account (next section).
If you don't see this option, the channel already sits in a Brand Account. Make sure the person who connects it is Owner or Admin of that Brand Account and has accepted the invitation.
Move your channel into a Brand Account
💡 Tip: A step-by-step guide with YouTube screenshots for every screen: How do I move my YouTube channel into a Brand Account?
Do this if a colleague or agency should connect your channel. Only the channel owner can do it. Take 10 quiet minutes: Google's confirmation screens talk about deleting a channel.
Sign in as the channel owner. Go to youtube.com/account and click Create a new channel. Give it any name. This empty channel is only a placeholder and is a Brand Account automatically.
Switch back to your real channel and open youtube.com/account_advanced again. Click Move channel to a Brand Account and verify your identity.
Check that the channel shown under "YouTube channel being moved" is your real channel with its real subscriber and video counts.
Scroll down, find the empty Brand Account you just created and click Replace.
Google asks "Delete this channel?". This refers to the empty placeholder, not your real channel. It must show no subscribers, no videos and no playlists. If it shows videos or subscribers, stop: you selected the wrong target. Otherwise tick the confirmation and click Delete channel.
On the last screen click Relink channel. It can take up to 10 minutes until everything is done.
⚠️ Important: Everyone who had channel permissions loses them during the move, and watch history, creator demographic data and gift settings are lost. Your channel name, URL, subscribers, videos, comments and playlists stay. Playlists can disappear from YouTube Studio for a few hours.
Invite the person who connects the channel
Open myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts, select your Brand Account and click Manage permissions.
Click the invite icon at the top right, enter the person's Google address and choose the role Admin (or Owner). Don't choose Communications manager.
Click Invite. The person must accept the invitation from the email before anything changes. This is the most common reason why the channel still doesn't show up.
Only the primary owner of a Brand Account can invite people. If Manage permissions isn't available, ask the primary owner.
Never share your Google password to get a channel connected. Invite the person as Admin instead. In YouTube Studio, keep managing permissions in your Brand Account and don't click Move permissions to YouTube Studio, because replient.ai can't use those permissions.
What you can do with YouTube comments
Action | YouTube |
Read comments | Yes. The video title and description are used as context for AI suggestions. |
Reply | Yes. A reply to a reply is posted under the original top-level comment, because YouTube doesn't allow deeper threads. |
Delete | Yes (not on partnership videos, because those belong to another channel) |
Like | No |
Hide | No |
Direct messages and DM automations | No |
Good to know
New YouTube comments are fetched by regular checks, so they can show up a few minutes after they were posted.
You can take access away at any time on your Google Account permissions page.
Connected the wrong channel? Open Learning, click the three dots on the YouTube card, choose Delete and connect again. Pick the right channel this time.