Setting up Google OAuth credentials for YouTube Data API v3 in Android app

Other Questions YouTube
1

I’m working on an Android project where I need to integrate YouTube Data API v3. I’m having trouble figuring out how to properly set up the Google OAuth credentials for my mobile application.

Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish:

try {
    // Need to get OAuth credentials here
    Credential userCredential = GoogleAuth.getCredentials(apiScopes, "channel-videos");
    
    // Build YouTube service with credentials
    youtubeService = new YouTube.Builder(GoogleAuth.TRANSPORT, GoogleAuth.FACTORY, userCredential)
        .setApplicationName("android-youtube-app")
        .build();
}

I understand that desktop applications use a different approach compared to mobile apps. Can someone explain the correct way to handle Google OAuth authentication in Android for accessing YouTube API? What’s the proper method to obtain and use credentials in a mobile environment?

2

The key difference is that mobile apps need to handle OAuth through the Google Play Services framework rather than the traditional web flow. You’ll want to configure your project in the Google Cloud Console with an Android OAuth 2.0 client ID, making sure to include your app’s SHA-1 fingerprint. In your Android code, implement GoogleSignIn with the YouTube Data API scopes, then extract the access token from the GoogleSignInAccount object. I ran into similar issues when I first tried adapting desktop OAuth examples for mobile - the authentication flow is completely different. Make sure your gradle dependencies include the Google Sign-In library and that your scopes include the specific YouTube permissions you need for your use case.

3

you gotta use GoogleSignIn instead of the desktop method. set up the oauth client id in the console for android, then use GoogleSignInOptions with the youtube scopes. after signing in, grab the GoogleSignInAccount to get the credentials. desktop auth just wont work on mobile.

4

I struggled with this exact same issue about six months ago when building my first YouTube integration. The main problem is that Android apps can’t use the standard OAuth flow that works for web or desktop applications. Instead, you need to implement the GoogleApiClient approach with proper credential handling. First, create an Android OAuth client in your Google Cloud Console and make sure to whitelist your package name and SHA-1 certificate fingerprint. Then use GoogleAccountCredential.usingOAuth2() method to create your credential object with the YouTube scopes. The tricky part is managing token refresh - I had to implement proper error handling for expired tokens since mobile apps don’t have the same automatic refresh mechanisms as desktop applications. Also worth noting that you’ll need the google-api-services-youtube dependency specifically for Android, not the generic Java client library.