Docs / Plan your channels

Outlier radar

Watch the accounts your channel competes with, see what breaks out among their uploads, and turn the idea — never the video — into original episodes of your own.

The outlier radar watches the channels yours competes with and points at the uploads doing far better than their own usual. Those uploads show what the niche's viewers are choosing now. The radar turns the idea behind one into a fresh-angle brief: two original topics for your channel on the same kind of promise, from another angle — never a remake.

What it does#

Each channel keeps its own watchlist of YouTube channels and Instagram accounts.
Each watched account is read about once a day: its name, its follower count and its newest uploads with their views (or likes and comments) and dates.
An outlier is an upload doing at least 3× its own account's usual at the same age, above a floor (10,000 views on YouTube, 5,000 on Instagram). "Usual" is the median of the account's own other uploads of the same kind — a Short or a long video, a Reel or a post — from the last 120 days (its newest 30), each brought to the same age with the account's own growth. Outliers are highlighted with ChannelForge's own figure — "4.2× its usual views for its age".
Only uploads between a day and 30 days old are judged, and an account needs at least five other uploads of the same kind before it has a usual. An Instagram account whose posts report no views is judged on likes plus comments, with a floor of 1,000.
From an outlier, or from an idea of your own, a brief plans two original topics at the front of the channel's backlog. The originality guard refuses a remake.

What works today#

How to use it#

Open Outlier radar in the sidebar and choose the channel at the top (the radar is per channel). The line above the watchlist says how many accounts your plan's radar watches across the workspace and how many are watched.
Under Watching for the channel, pick the Platform and type the account in Address, @handle or name:
- YouTube: youtube.com/@handle, youtube.com/channel/UC…, an @handle, a channel id, or a channel's name;
- Instagram: instagram.com/name, @name or name — a business or creator account.
Press Watch. The account is read at once — or, if the workspace's accounts were read in the last 15 minutes, with the next pass, within the hour; the answer says which. Names the channel's niche research mentioned appear under From this channel's niche research: — press one to watch it.
Read the newest uploads under each account. Read now reads the whole watchlist again (at most every 15 minutes in a workspace).
Make a brief:
- on an outlier, press Make a fresh-angle brief;
- or type the kind of promise under Or an idea family of your own — "everyday objects hiding extreme forces" — and press Plan two topics from it.
The price is beside each button. The brief appears under Briefs as Planning, then Planned with its two topics, now at the front of the channel's backlog.
To stop watching an account, press its bin icon. Its uploads are deleted with it.

Settings#

Option	Where	What it does	Default
Make fresh-angle briefs from this channel's best outliers by themselves	By itself on the radar page	The radar briefs the channel's top new outliers on its own	Off
Briefs a week at most	The same card	How many briefs it may make by itself in a week, 0 to 7; each is a topic plan, held and charged like any	2

Credits and plans#

Reading accounts is free. A brief is a topic plan: it is held and charged like any, at the price beside its button, including the ones the radar makes by itself within its weekly limit.

The radar is on Creator and above. The number of accounts it watches across the workspace grows with the plan, and one channel watches at most 10. After a move to a smaller plan, the accounts added first are read and the rest wait, and the page says which.

Limits and good to know#

Accounts are read with your own connection to that platform: connect YouTube (and Instagram) in Settings → Connections. A channel's name typed instead of its address costs one search.
Nothing of another account is kept past 30 days. An account not read for 30 days loses its name, handle, picture, follower count and id from the radar.
New outliers are told to owners, admins and editors — up to three a read — and sent to your webhooks as outlier.found (Instagram's only).
A brief borrows a promise, not a video. Titles, scripts and scenes are written fresh for your channel, and the originality guard compares them with your own history.
Editors, admins and owners manage the watchlist and make briefs; viewers can read the radar.

Troubleshooting#

You see	What it means	What to do
Waiting to be read	Just added	Wait: it is read within the hour
Not found	No account answers to that address or name	Use the account's own address — `youtube.com/@handle` — not a video's
Not readable yet	The platform does not let us read that account yet (Instagram today), or the workspace has no account connected to read it with	Read the line under the account. If it asks you to connect or reconnect an account, do it in Settings → Connections; otherwise it is read once the platform allows it
Not read	The read failed this time	It is tried again within hours
"A channel watches at most 10 accounts — remove one first."	The channel's watchlist is full	Remove an account
"Your plan's outlier radar watches N accounts across the workspace …"	The workspace's radar is full	Remove one elsewhere, or upgrade
"Not yet: the radar read this workspace's accounts a few minutes ago …"	Read now was pressed within 15 minutes	Wait; it reads them again shortly

Niche research — where the suggested names come from
Comment themes to topics — topics from your own viewers
Breakout follow-ups — when one of your own episodes takes off
The coach — weekly recommendations that can include radar briefs

Something missing or unclear? Tell us and we will improve this page.