Channels
The accounts you watch. Everything else in Research starts here. Studio, then Channels.
Tracking one
Paste a URL or a handle. It is resolved, then synced in the background.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
pending | Just added, waiting to sync |
syncing | Fetching |
synced | Ready |
failed | Could not fetch it |
The page polls until it settles. Syncs also run every 6 hours automatically.
What you can track
| Platform | Works |
|---|---|
| YouTube | Yes, fully |
| Yes, professional accounts only | |
| Threads | Limited, see below |
| TikTok | No |
TikTok cannot be tracked
There is no official read driver for TikTok. Trying to track one fails with "No official read driver registered for tiktok."
Getting that data would mean scraping, which risks the account. Postlyra uses official APIs only.
Instagram needs a professional account
Instagram research runs through business discovery, which only returns data for Business and Creator accounts. A personal account cannot be tracked.
Threads is limited by Meta's access tier
On Meta's default Standard Access, profile lookup only resolves Meta's own handles. This unlocks when Meta grants Advanced Access.
Finding channels
Similar channels. From a tracked channel, find lookalikes.
Suggestions. Postlyra proposes channels based on your persona and what you already track. Preview one before tracking it, or dismiss it.
Suggestions are capped per run, deliberately, so you get a short list to judge rather than a hundred to wade through.
Then what
Tracked channels feed:
- Videos — the outlier feed across everything you track
- Insights — pattern analysis over analysed videos
Neither has anything to show until at least one channel has synced.
How many
Ten to twenty is plenty. The point is to find outliers, and an outlier is only meaningful relative to a channel's own baseline. A hundred channels gives you a firehose, not a signal.
Track people your audience actually watches, not the biggest accounts in your category.
Credentials
YouTube runs on a platform-level API key. Instagram research runs on platform-level credentials shared across tenants. You configure neither.
The exception is Threads, which uses your own connected Threads account, and Instagram hashtag search, which uses your own connected Instagram account. See Search.
Auto-analyse
Off by default. Videos are analysed when you ask, not automatically, so a sync does not silently spend your AI credits.