I Built an API That Tracks Viral TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts Content in Real Time

Short form video is now the biggest discovery engine on the internet. Trends start on TikTok, spread to Reels, spill into YouTube Shorts, and then blow up everywhere else. The problem is that developers have never had a clean way to monitor this in real time.

So we built one.

This is the Virlo API... It gives you a fast way to search for viral content across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels based on your keywords. It returns fresh videos, metadata, and breakout signals you can use to build your own tools, dashboards, or AI agents.

Below is a quick breakdown of how it works and how you can use it.

What the API Does :)

Virlo collects millions of videos per day from TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. It ranks everything using velocity, niche patterns, creator history, and keyword matching. You can run a keyword search against all platforms at once, get an orbitId, and pull results when the job is ready.

Developers have used it to build trend trackers, competitor monitors, UGC product scrapers, and short form content research tools.

Quick Example

Here is a simple keyword search...

POST

https://api.virlo.ai/orbit/keyword-search

Body

{

"name": "AI Coding Tools",

"keywords": ["ai coding", "auto code", "dev tools"]

}

This queues a job and returns an orbitId. Then you poll.

GET

https://api.virlo.ai/orbit/results/:orbitId

If the job is ready you get a structured list of videos across platforms with performance metrics, keyword match data, upload timestamps, engagement, and early velocity scoring, etc

What You Can Build With It // What We've Seen

• Trend detection dashboards

• Creator analysis tools

• UGC and product discovery engines

• Real time signals for marketing teams

• Scripts for AI agents that react to new content

• Tools that compare formats across platforms

• Growth tools that track niches over time

If your app needs to know what people are watching right now, this is the fastest way to get it.

Why Real Time Matters

Most analytics platforms only show historical data. Virlo is built for discovery in the first hour. Breakout signals happen fast and developers are starting to treat short form video like a data stream rather than a social network.

Creators use it to reverse engineer formats. Agencies use it to watch new niches. Founders use it to power recommendation engines. Developers use it to build tools that feel alive.

Docs and Access

Full documentation is here: https://dev.virlo.ai

You can plug it into Python, Node, or any environment that supports REST.

If you want a starter repo, a demo script, or a small walkthrough, just comment and I will post one.

Email me at [email protected] if interested in discussing in more detail diff usecases