Arjun Vijay Prakash

Posted on Jan 8

I Built an AI-Powered Trend Analysis Tool Using the Virlo API (Here's How It Works)

#python #ai #api #news

So here's the thing.

My friend was trying to grow his motivational page through trends. He kept telling me how he used to miss trends every time. By the time he noticed something was trending, it was already past its peak. He'd see creators hitting millions of views on a topic he was planning to cover, but by the time he posted, the moment had passed.

I started looking into how to catch trends earlier. The tools he was using just showed him what was already popular. They'd say "this hashtag has 2.3 million posts," but that didn't help him decide what to do next.

Should he use it? Was it too competitive already? Was there a better angle? The data never answered those questions.

The problem wasn't a lack of data. It was a lack of meaning.

I don't love theory. When something bothers me, I build things. So I decided to make something small that would actually help. Something that would turn trends into actionable next steps, rather than just showing numbers.

The gap between seeing trends and using them

Most tools that show you trending content do exactly that. They show you what's trending. That's it.

Hashtag analytics platforms tell you which tags have the most posts. Video dashboards show you view counts. Trend aggregators surface topics with big spikes.

All useful information, but they stop there.

Most dashboards are built for looking at data, not for making decisions with it. They show you rows and columns and filters, but they don't tell you what to do next.

Creators think differently. They want to know:

What should I post today?
What hashtags should I use?
How can I connect this trend to my niche?
When should I post for maximum reach?

I wanted something that behaved more like a thinking partner.

Something that would answer the question creators actually ask: what should I do next?

So I built the thing I wished existed

I called it ContentCompass. It helps you "navigate" trends. That's it.

I built it with Python and Streamlit. The reason is simple, it's fast!

Streamlit lets you build interactive web apps in Python without dealing with frontend frameworks. You write Python, you get a UI. For a side project, that's perfect. I could build something functional in hours instead of days or weeks.

Here's how it works. The app has four layers:

Awareness layer: The Trend Hub
- Shows what's happening right now across platforms
- Organises trends into three buckets: what's hottest, what's stable, and what's emerging
- That categorisation matters because different trends require different strategies

Context layer: The Video Vault
- Shows what's actually winning with real embedded videos
- You can watch them, see how they're structured, notice patterns
- Includes hashtags that made those videos successful

Planning layer: The Weekly Blueprint
- Takes trends and turns them into a five-day content plan
- Suggests specific video ideas, hooks, hashtag strategies, and posting times
- Instead of staring at a blank calendar, you have five starting points

Execution layer: The Brief Creator
- Turns any trend or idea into a shareable brief
- Includes why this trend matters, what format to use, which hashtags to choose, and when to post
- The kind of document you'd send to an editor or client

Each layer builds on the last.

I added AI here because turning patterns into plans requires actual thinking. You can't just automate trend detection, but you can automate the translation from "this is trending" to "here's how to use it."

I used Google's Gemini 3 Flash model for the content generation parts. Weekly plans and briefs. The stuff that requires reasoning, not just data lookup.

I also deliberately didn't automate some things:

Video selection
Hashtag strategy selection

Those are judgment calls. The app gives you options, but you make the choice. That restraint was intentional.

Too much automation feels like a black box. Too little feels like a data dump.

None of this works without good data underneath. This is where Virlo did the heavy lifting.

Where the data comes from

When I started building this, I had options. I could scrape social platforms directly, use multiple APIs and stitch them together, or build my own aggregation system.

All of those sounded painful. Scraping breaks constantly. Multiple APIs mean multiple integrations and multiple points of failure. Building my own aggregation system means maintaining infrastructure I don't want to maintain.

What I actually needed was reliable trend data across platforms. Trends that actually mean something. Hashtag data that's consistent. Video performance metrics I could trust.

That's what Virlo provides.

Finding Virlo's API changed how I built this project.

Virlo is the world's largest short-form data aggregator. They're analysing 1.5 million videos across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. They track 268+ trends emerging every 24 hours. They're used by 1,700+ teams worldwide. This wasn't just another API. This was actual infrastructure.

Virlo gives you real data from real platforms. Their API connects to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram Reels, and more. You're not getting scraped data or estimates. You're getting actual trend signals that platforms are generating right now. Their data refreshes twice daily.

The trends endpoint powers the Trend Hub. The hashtags endpoint provides analytics and stats. The videos endpoint surfaces top-performing content.

The cross-platform aspect matters. Virlo aggregates across platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, which helps avoid tunnel vision.

The API works well. Their API documentation is clear and straightforward. The API has credit costs. Trends cost more than hashtags. Videos cost more than niche lookups. That structure actually helped me design better because I couldn't just refresh data constantly. I had to cache intelligently and only fetch what users actually need.

What this means for builders: If you're working on anything that needs trend data or social analytics, Virlo is worth checking out.

What I learned building this

This wasn't about trends. Not really. It was about thinking clearly when everyone else is shouting numbers. Trends were just the excuse.

When you're early on something, whether it's a creator account or a side business, clarity is everything. But clarity doesn't come from more data. It comes from better ways of processing data.

ContentCompass is just one way. Not the only one. Probably not even the best one. But it's the one I needed.

If something feels fuzzy, don't wait for clarity. Build a lens. Even a small one.

Because.

Clarity often shows up after you ship.

ArjunCodess / ContentCompass

AI-powered trend intelligence and content planning tool for creators

ContentCompass - AI-Powered Trend Intelligence & Content Planning Platform

AI-powered trend intelligence and content planning tool for creators — discover trending content, optimize hashtag strategies, and generate actionable briefs using Gemini AI

📝 Table of Contents

🧐 About

ContentCompass is a creator-focused trend intelligence and content planning tool built with Python + Streamlit. It features two modes: Demo Mode (uses locally-generated JSON sample data, no API calls) and Live Mode (uses Virlo API with BYOK authentication).

The app helps creators discover trending content, optimize hashtag strategies, and generate actionable content briefs using Gemini AI. Users can explore trend hubs, analyze hashtag performance, scout content niches, browse top-performing videos, generate weekly content plans, and create professional briefs for their teams.

Key features include: