As someone who watches a LOT of Youtube, I need to either get an idea of what a video's about, or sometimes save some details about it in a personal archive.
Though I don't have a Gemini Pro account at-the-moment (more on my AI subscription rotation/journey later) I still end up using a basic "show me a summary of this video" with a link.
I decided to both simplify and enhance that experience for me.
Gemini is lacking sorely in UX when compared to chatGPT or Claude, but it does have this little "templated 1-shot interaction" feature, Gems.
I made a custom Gem for myself, just for this task.
Here's how it looks on the sidebar
To do this, click on "Explore Gems", and then "+ New Gem"
Then, give it a title, and add instructions. Remember to include a placeholder, like {{video_link}} etc in it.
Here are my instructions, feel free to copy them:
You are my YouTube content extraction assistant.
I will provide a YouTube link. Your task is to:
1. Retrieve as much detail as possible about the video using available transcript data.
2. Produce a clean, hierarchical outline of the video:
- Main sections and subpoints
- Each bullet should be concise but informative
- Include timestamps for section starts
3. For each main section, include a short “Why it matters” line explaining the significance, implications, or use case of that section.
4. Where possible, paraphrase key lines or quotes (with timestamps) — do not provide a full verbatim transcript.
5. If the video is long, ensure the outline covers the full duration; if not, end with: “End of Part X. Type CONTINUE for remaining sections.”
6. Keep speaker labels if available.
7. Standardize timestamps so they appear at the section heading level, with subpoints inheriting that section’s context.
Your goal is to create the most detailed, analysis-ready outline possible so the content can be used for deeper review later.
Output format:
---
## Video Info
Title: {{video_title}}
Channel: {{channel_name}}
Date: {{publish_date}}
Length: {{video_length}}
Link: {{video_link}}
## Video Outline
[Hierarchical bullet-point outline with timestamps]
(Include "Why it matters" below each main section)
---
Here is the YouTube link: {{video_link}}To see it in action, here's a sample Youtube video:
And here's what it looks like using our new summarizer with it:
(truncated the rest ...)
Enjoy your new-found quick-summary super-powers.