Step 0 · Find the entry point

Open Connection Manager and click Connect on YouTube

The journey starts in the same place on both surfaces: the Connection Manager. On the web you'll see four platform cards in a grid; on mobile they live inside a collapsible panel at the top of Analytics. The YouTube card carries a red play-button icon and the line "Connect your YouTube channel to view insights and analytics."

Hit Connect. That single click is what opens the modal-style five-step wizard you'll spend the rest of this guide inside.

Same place on both surfacesOn the web, Connection Manager lives inside Analytics. On mobile, the same panel is collapsible at the top of the Analytics tab — tap the YouTube card to open the same five-step wizard.
Step 1 · Account Verification

Tick all four prerequisites before the wizard lets you continue

The first screen is a four-checkbox prerequisite gate. The web wizard calls it "YouTube Channel Requirements"; the mobile wizard frames it as "please confirm the following". The four items are the same on both surfaces — a Google account that owns or manages the channel, a channel with content, an understanding that the YouTube API has quota limits, and explicit acknowledgement that Inflira will read your data.

The wording on two of the four checkboxes is slightly tighter on mobile (you'll see the verbatim differences in the next section). The intent is identical — every box must be ticked before the wizard will let you advance.

If you don't have a YouTube channel yet, both surfaces link to Google's "How to Create a YouTube Channel" support page before you proceed.

Hold on — this gate is realThe Next button silently does nothing until every checkbox is ticked. If you click it early the wizard just shows a yellow warning listing what's still unchecked.
Step 2 · Google Login

The wizard hands you off to Google for OAuth 2.0

Step 2 doesn't ask anything of you yet — it's a heads-up screen. It tells you that you're about to be redirected to Google to authenticate via OAuth 2.0, and lists the two permission scopes it will request: youtube.readonly and yt-analytics.readonly.

The button you press is what differs between surfaces. On the web it says Connect to Google and opens a 600×700 popup window pointing at Google's OAuth screen. On mobile it says Connect with Google and opens your phone's system browser via Linking.openURL(). Either way, you land on Google's standard sign-in page and pick the account whose channel you want to connect.

Two read-only scopes — that is allyoutube.readonly lets Inflira see your channel info; yt-analytics.readonly lets Inflira see your views, watch time and demographics. Inflira asks for nothing else — no upload, no comment, no edit.
Step 3 · Permissions

Approve the Inflira request inside Google's consent screen

The third screen is what the wizard shows you while you're over at Google. It re-states what Inflira can do ("Access your channel and video statistics", "Analyze your audience demographics and engagement", "Track your channel's performance over time") and what Inflira will not do ("Upload videos or post comments on your behalf", "Delete or modify your existing content").

The mobile wizard adds an explicit "Waiting for Google Authorization" panel with a spinner. Both surfaces are listening for the OAuth response in the background — you don't have to do anything except finish the consent over at Google.

If you blocked the popup on the web, the wizard nudges you to check your popup blocker. If something fails, both surfaces drop you back on step 1 with a Try Again button.

How the redirect comes backWeb: the popup posts a YOUTUBE_OAUTH_CALLBACK message back to the parent window — the wizard verifies the origin against an allow-list before accepting it. Mobile: Google redirects to inflira://oauth/youtube and the DeepLinkHandler picks it up.
Step 4 · Channel Selection

Pick the YouTube channel you want connected

Once Google approves you, Inflira's backend exchanges the auth code for tokens and pulls the list of channels available on your Google account. The wizard renders them as radio rows: thumbnail, title, account type, subscriber and video count.

The web wizard adds a small italic note under the list: "Only channels where you are the owner or have manager permissions are displayed." The mobile wizard doesn't show that line — instead, if the list is empty, it shows a "No Channels Found" empty state with a videocam-off icon.

Pick the channel and hit Connect Channel. Behind the scenes the wizard ships your selection back to the backend along with the access/refresh tokens it stored from the previous step (this is the wizards' "two-step flow" — exchange first, then complete with the chosen channel id).

Auto-selected when there is only oneBoth wizards check the channel count after the token exchange. If your Google account only has one YouTube channel, it gets pre-selected automatically — you can just hit Connect Channel.
Step 5 · Confirmation

A short progress bar fills, then you're connected

The final screen shows a sync animation, then declares "Connection Successful!" and lists the connection details: access token valid for 1 hour with auto-refresh enabled, refresh token stored securely, granted scopes (youtube.readonly, yt-analytics.readonly).

Below that, both surfaces show a "What happens next" block with the same four bullets — your YouTube metrics will appear in the Analytics Hub, you'll get video-performance insights, your audience demographics will be analyzed, and data will be refreshed automatically subject to API quota.

The closing button differs slightly: the web wizard says View YouTube Analytics, mobile just says Done. Either way, that click drops you back into Analytics with a green "Connected" pill on the YouTube card, and the daily sync scheduler picks it up from here.

Token lifecycle is handled for youThe access token is valid for 1 hour and auto-refreshes; the refresh token is stored encrypted server-side. If a token does expire later, the connection card on the Analytics page shows a Refresh Token button.