How Auto-Start works on YouTube

Auto-Start is one rule you save on a YouTube channel: how many live viewers every stream should open with, and how long they stay. Socialbot checks your channel every few minutes, and the moment it sees you live it starts those viewers by itself. You don’t have to be at your computer, and there’s nothing to paste.

What an Auto-Start rule does

A rule is one channel, one amount and one length, such as “400 live viewers for 2 hours, every time I go live”. When the check sees your stream, the rule places an ordinary instance: it appears in your instance list and the viewers arrive within 15 minutes, exactly as if you had started it by hand.

What Auto-Start covers
	Auto-Start
YouTube live viewers	Yes: fires once per stream, when your channel goes live
Everything else on YouTube	Start each instance by hand
TikTok and Instagram	Start each instance by hand

A rule spends the same allowance as an instance you start yourself, and it is all or nothing: if the room left under your plan’s live-viewer limit is smaller than the rule asks for, that stream is skipped and nothing is sent, never a part of it. The next stream fires normally.

Live viewers don’t run down like followers or views. Your plan’s number (50 on YouTube Starter) is the most viewers you can have watching at once, and it comes back when those viewers leave.

How to create an Auto-Start rule

Open the YouTube channel from your dashboard and press Create instance. (Or press Auto-start, then New Auto-Start rule, which opens the same form ready to go.)
Pick Live viewers and set how many each stream should get, up to the most your plan allows at once.
Turn on Save for Auto-Start at the bottom of the form, then pick how long the viewers stay: 30 minutes, 1 h, 1 h 30, 2 h, 3 h, 5 h or 6 h. Every live-viewer instance the rule starts lasts that long.
Press Save for Auto-Start. The target reads “Your next live stream”, so there is no link to paste.

The YouTube form for live viewers at 400 with Save for Auto-Start on: length chips from 30 min to 6 h with 2 h selected, the note that viewers started by Auto-Start stay 2 h, and the target Your next live stream on @orbitgaming

One rule per channel: saving again replaces it. Once viewers have started, their length can’t be extended and they leave when your stream ends, so pick a length that covers a normal stream of yours rather than your longest ever.

How Socialbot knows you’re live

Every few minutes, Socialbot looks at each channel that has a rule and whose owner has an active YouTube plan, and asks the one question it needs: is this channel streaming right now? Nothing is installed, you never give us a Google login, and the dashboard doesn’t have to be open. Your viewers are normally started within a few minutes of you going live.

Each stream fires once. If your connection drops and the same stream comes back, Socialbot recognises it and does not start viewers a second time. A new broadcast is a new stream, so it gets its own viewers.

Where to see, change or delete a rule

Press Auto-start at the top of the channel page. The dialog shows the rule with its amount and length, and the bin icon deletes it. To change the amount or the length, save the rule again with the new numbers.

The YouTube Auto-Start dialog showing one rule, Live viewers 400 for 2 h with the status On go-live, a bin icon, and a New Auto-Start rule button

Deleting a rule never touches live viewers that are already running: that instance finishes its length as normal.

Auto-Start questions

Do I need to keep the dashboard open for Auto-Start to fire?

No. Socialbot runs the check on its side and only needs your public @handle, with no login and no app. Close the tab, stream from OBS or your console, and the viewers still start.

How quickly do the viewers start after I go live?

Socialbot checks your channel every few minutes, so the instance starts within minutes of you going live, and the viewers themselves arrive within 15 minutes of that.

How long do Auto-Start viewers stay?

The length saved on the rule: 30 minutes, or 1 h, 1 h 30, 2 h, 3 h, 5 h or 6 h. Every stream gets that same length. The length can’t be extended, and the viewers leave when your stream ends, so pick one that covers a normal stream. To change it, save the rule again with another length.

What happens if I don’t have enough viewers left?

That stream is skipped and nothing is sent: a rule is all or nothing, never a part of it. This happens when other live viewers from the same plan are still running, since they all share your plan’s limit on how many at once. Once it ends, the next stream fires normally.

Can I automate followers, views or likes?

Not at the moment. Auto-Start covers YouTube live viewers only; everything else is started by hand from the dashboard, which takes a few seconds once your post or video is up.