I am using the YouTube Data API v3 to retrieve comment threads.
• I use commentThreads.list to fetch top-level comments.
• I use comments.list to fetch replies.
However, I’ve noticed that the parentId of replies always references the top-level comment, even when the reply is actually responding to another reply.
Example structure in YouTube UI:
Top-level comment└── Reply A└── Reply B (reply to Reply A)When fetching via the API, both Reply A and Reply B have their parentId set to the top-level comment. There does not appear to be a way to identify that Reply B is a reply to Reply A rather than directly to the top-level comment.
Is there any way, using the YouTube Data API, to reconstruct the actual reply hierarchy or does the API flatten all replies under the top-level comment without preserving reply-to-reply relationships?
If this is the intended behavior, what is the recommended approach to model conversations accurately?