How pre-publish testing works

No. The raw camera feed never leaves the viewer's device. MediaPipe AI runs in the browser. Keenie only gets anonymized coordinates, scores, and expression labels. Never video or images.

Yes. Gaze and expression analysis run on the viewer's device. No raw webcam footage is recorded or stored. Viewers also choose what to share before they start watching.

Only if Gaze Tracking or Facial & Behavior is turned on. Comments-only sessions (and playback metrics like re-watch intensity) work fine without a camera.

No. Gaze and facial tracking work with a normal 720p or 1080p laptop webcam. Viewers do not need extra gear.

Yes. On the watch page they get Choose What to Share, and can turn Comments, Gaze Tracking, and Facial & Behavior on or off before they begin.

Depends on what they enable: estimated gaze and screen focus, facial expression and behaviour signals (badges like Distracted or Looking away), playback events (play, pause, seek, skips, re-watches, ads), and any comments they type, each tied to a timestamp. No raw camera feed is sent to our servers.

Yes. That is the whole point. Upload an unlisted YouTube video (Private will not play in the embed), turn ads Off in YouTube Studio, keep Allow embedding on, and paste that URL into a keenie project. Share the keenie watch link with testers. Check hooks, pacing, and drop-offs before you go live. If the public cut must stay monetized, use a second unlisted copy with ads off for keenie and leave that copy up. Direct private upload (no YouTube) is coming later.

A handful of sessions can already show patterns. If five people drop at the same timestamp, that is a real signal. For steadier trends, aim for about 15 to 30 sessions. Each plan caps how many sessions a single version can collect (50 on Lite, 200 on Pro, 500 on Studio).

A project is a folder inside your workspace for grouping related videos, for example a series on one topic. It is optional. New workspaces start with a project named Main; you can keep everything there. Add more projects later if you want separate topics. Testers never see projects: they just open the watch link you send.

Open a project, paste an unlisted YouTube URL (ads Off, embedding allowed), keep the version Active, then Copy watch link and send it to testers. They do not need a keenie account. When sessions appear, open Analysis to review the results.

Copy that version’s watch link (the ?v= value is the version short id) and send it only to that group. Everyone who opens it sees that cut. Use different version links for different segments, for example existing fans versus cold viewers. If you share the video’s short id instead, each visitor is assigned at random to an Active version. Testers need no keenie account.

Each cut is a Version under the same video. Share a version’s watch link (the version short id in ?v=) to pin every tester to that exact cut. Share the video’s short id instead, and each viewer is assigned at random to one of the Active versions, so people opening the same video link can land on different cuts. On Lite and above, open Compare Versions to line those cuts up side by side. Draft versions are not watchable.

On the video page, choose Add Version, paste the other edit’s YouTube URL, and set it Active. Your plan’s versions-per-video limit applies (Lite: 2, Pro: 5, Studio: unlimited). Then open Compare Versions from Analysis or the video page. Direct private upload for cuts (no YouTube link) is coming later.

They choose what to share, complete a short camera calibration if gaze or facial tracking is on, then watch the video and can leave comments that stick to the moment they were watching. The session submits when they finish or leave.

No. Only creators sign in to the workspace. Testers open the watch link in a normal browser, with no signup and no invite to accept.

Team management ships later with Studio. Until then Lite and Pro are for a single creator. When Studio opens, workspace owners will invite from Settings (gear on the workspace name): pick a role (member or admin), optionally enter an email so keenie sends the join link, or copy the link yourself.

Only Active versions open on the watch page. Drafts stay off the link until you activate them. Archiving takes a cut out of watch and share.

Yes. Ads on the embed freeze the content clock, so gaze and attention get stuck on the wrong second. There is no ads-off-for-embeds-only switch. In YouTube Studio, set Monetization to Off on the unlisted test video. If the public upload must keep ads, upload a duplicate, set it Unlisted, turn ads Off, and paste that URL into keenie.

A never-public unlisted copy does not show in search or on your channel, and its watch time does not count toward Partner Program hours. YouTube has no channel star-rating; deleting that copy is not a ranking penalty. Keep it anyway: keenie analysis still embeds that video ID. Do not unlist or delete the public original.

With Gaze Tracking on, the viewer's browser estimates where they look during playback. You see that as hotspots on the video in your analysis dashboard. Processing stays local. Nothing from the camera feed is uploaded.

It shows how many times each part of the video was played, including skips (near zero) and moments people replayed. That is different from retention, which tracks whether someone was still watching at each second.

Aggregate averages the sessions you have turned on into one view, like mean retention or attention at each second. Split shows each session on its own so you can compare people side by side. In either mode, toggle sessions in the sidebar to include or exclude anyone. YouTube Analytics does not let you do that.

Compare Versions lines up two or more cuts of the same video so you can see retention, attention, gaze, and other tracks side by side. Each version keeps its own sessions. You toggle versions and sessions on or off, scrub synced players, and decide which cut to keep.

Split mode compares sessions inside one version (person vs person). Compare Versions compares cuts (version vs version), with each version’s selected sessions rolled into its own series. Use Split when one edit needs a closer look; use Compare Versions when you are choosing between edits.

As many Active (and optionally archived) non-draft versions as your plan allows per video, as long as at least two have sessions turned on. Lite allows 2 versions per video, Pro 5, Studio unlimited. Drag the player cards to reorder them; charts follow that order.

A version watch link always opens that cut. A video watch link (the content short id) picks one Active version at random for each visitor, so people with the same video link can see different cuts. There is no fixed 50/50 split or automatic winner. You choose which links to share and which cut to publish.

Yes. Track cards are rearrangable and resizable. Drag them, resize them, add tracks, and the layout saves itself. In Compare Versions you can also drag the video cards to reorder cuts.

Open the video’s Analysis view for a single cut, or Compare Versions when you have more than one. Use Aggregate or Split inside a version, and toggle sessions in the sidebar to include or exclude anyone from the charts.

YouTube Analytics is mostly after publish and heavily aggregated. You cannot turn individual viewers on or off. Keenie is for testing before launch: share a private watch link, then use gaze heatmaps, retention, re-watch intensity, emotion, and viewer notes on the timeline. In analysis you can include or exclude any session to filter the view to what you need.

When workspaces open, every new workspace gets 30 days of Pro: unlimited projects, up to 5 versions per video, 200 sessions per version, Compare Versions, and the full Phase 1 analysis set (comments, retention, re-watch intensity, attention score, emotion, gaze, badges, split mode, and custom tracks). No credit card required.

No. When workspaces open, the Pro trial will never ask for a card. You only add payment when you choose a paid plan after the trial.

When your trial ends, the workspace becomes read-only. You can still sign in and view existing projects, sessions, and analysis. You cannot create new work or collect new sessions until you subscribe to Lite or Pro. Your data stays.

The watch link for that version closes. Testers see that the test is no longer collecting sessions. Your analysis stays. Each version has its own cap: 50 on Lite, 200 on Pro, 500 on Studio. Start a new version or upgrade for a higher cap.