Why Kuaishou Is Harder Than It Looks
Open a Kuaishou video on a desktop browser without an account and you mostly get a login prompt. The video address is never in the page source — it is requested later, by the app's own code, after the player decides you are allowed to watch.
The mobile site behaves differently: it plays public posts for anyone. So instead of scraping the desktop page, the post is opened the way a phone opens it, the player is allowed to start, and the media file it reaches for is the file you end up with. That is also why a Kuaishou link takes a few seconds longer than, say, a YouTube one.
- No account, cookies or app install on your side.
- The file is the stream the player uses, so the corner logo is not burned into it.
- If a post is private or has been removed, there is nothing for the player to load.
