Add Support for Programmatically Inviting Recipients to Private Videos via YouTube API v3 #3626

A screenshot that you have tested with "Try this API".

The current YouTube API v3 does not support programmatically inviting users (via email) to private videos, despite this feature being available in the YouTube UI. When attempting to use the recipients field in the videos.update method, developers receive errors, forcing manual sharing and creating workflow inefficiencies.

Current Limitations:

1. The recipients field is ignored/unsupported in API requests
2. Developers must manually invite users via the YouTube UI, which is not scalable for applications requiring automation

What would you like to see in the library?

Extend the YouTube API v3 to support the recipients parameter in the videos.update method, mirroring the UI functionality. This would allow a code like below that currently throws an error

await youtube.videos.update({
  part: ['status', 'recipients'],
  requestBody: {
    id: 'VIDEO_ID',
    status: { privacyStatus: 'private' },
    recipients: ['user@example.com'], // ✅ Valid email(s)
  },
});

This feature would be very useful in some cases like

1. EdTech Platforms: Grant students/educators access to private course videos programmatically.
2. Collaborative Content Creation: Platforms allowing multiple contributors to review/edit private videos.
3. Enterprise Internal Sharing: Automate secure video access for team members without manual UI steps.

Current response when including recipients:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 400,
    "message": "'recipients'",
    "errors": [
      {
        "message": "'recipients'",
        "domain": "youtube.part",
        "reason": "unknownPart",
        "location": "part",
        "locationType": "parameter"
      }
    ]
  }
}

The feature will be beneficial because it will

1. Align API capabilities with YouTube’s UI features.
2. Reduce reliance on risky workarounds like credential sharing for manual access.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I tried to use some npm libraries like youtube-studio, but none seems to be doing that. Another option would be to use browser automation like Puppeteer to mimic the UI actions, but this is Fragile and may violate some kind of ToS

Additional context/notes

API Version: youtube.v3
Authentication Method: OAuth 2.0
Environment: Node.js (googleapis v144.0.0)