YouTube Tests Native Picture-in-Picture Mode for iOS App

[JohnnieBBadde]

"ProTube" from circa 2015 called and wants its usability features back

Hate it that Google pressured Apple to kick that app from the App Store. I don't understand why the official YouTube app is so bad on so many levels. Maybe the underlying tracking features rely on a ****** UI. And yes I am using a Premium subscription, I don't expect anything for free.

 

[4jasontv]

I’m on YouTube Premium, and I wouldn’t mind if they enabled PiP for all users, whether they’re on Premium or not. I’m all for an improved user experience for everyone, which comes at no cost to me.

I guess I’m OK with this because my main reason for subscribing to Premium is to get rid of the ads, and background playing is just a bonus to me. I can imagine it’d be different for people who subscribed to Premium primarily for background playing.

I agree. I pay for ad free as well. It actually took me some time to get used to background play because I had a habit of pausing video by locking my device. The PiP feature would be nice for kids who want to watch KA or CC and look at their notes, or look something up while it's still playing.

I use PiP YT video on my desktop all the time - and while it would take me some time to get used to having it available I bet it would be great on my phone too.

 

[aleni]

While Pip is nice I don't see a the point on such small screens.

It’s not about it’ll be used on a small screen. It’s useful when we need to reply text or quick email when we’re watching youtube.

 

[rjp1]

YouTube Premium costs $11.99 ($15.99 through the YouTube app for iOS due to Apple's in-app purchase fees).

Wait a sec - why does Google get to charge different prices?

 

[Justjay27]

I just want PIP for YTTV

 

[1193001]

lol pip on all my samsung phones is free on youtube app no premium needed sucks youtube is trying to force app to use premium

 

[anthdci]

Wait a sec - why does Google get to charge different prices?

there's a few of them, I use youtube tools for background play and PIP.

 

[MVMNT]

2020 really is a weird year.

 

[jonblatho]

Wait a sec - why does Google get to charge different prices?

It's not against the rules to charge more for IAP subscriptions/items compared to your own payment system. It used to be, though.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I just want PIP for YTTV

The omission of PiP on YTTV is even more egregious given how much people are paying.

Hopefully YT and YTTV will both get it natively on iOS 14.

I enjoy PiP on YT on my jailbroken iPads, but YTTV doesn't have it, even jailbroken -- fingers crossed.

 

[justperry]

For me, at least, the usefulness of the feature isn’t so much the video but the audio I’m interested in listening to while I do other things on my phone.

For example, I watch the Big Brother live feeds throughout the day and don’t really care for what’s happening on the screen, but more interested in the conversations taking place.

I’m on YouTube Premium, and I wouldn’t mind if they enabled PiP for all users, whether they’re on Premium or not. I’m all for an improved user experience for everyone, which comes at no cost to me.

To play the audio of a video while you’re doing other crap

Fair enough.

It’s not about it’ll be used on a small screen. It’s useful when we need to reply text or quick email when we’re watching youtube.

Does it resize, if not there is no real benefit.

 

[BulkSlash]

The reason they’ve never implemented this on their iOS/iPadOS apps is because they are unable to activate the feature exclusively for Premium users. Because it’s an Apple API feature not a YouTube built one, they have to add it into their app for everyone or no one at all. And so giving this to everyone would make premium users feel disadvantaged. And also confuse normal users who could PiP their videos but still not turn to screen off without stopping the video

so yeah the implementation of this feature is way overdue but not due to lack of ability to code it in, rather the decision of whether to add it in everyone or no one. The battle continues

I don’t think that’s correct. Looking at the Apple’s documentation for the AVPlayerViewController developers can easily disable PiP, so it would be easy for Google to turn it off for non-subscribers (not that I want them to do this). Link to docs

Its also not because they can’t insert adverts either as Apple have included features to allow interstitial content and even have tutorials on it.

I believe the reason must either be the lack of specific codec support as others have noted or it’s because Google want to make Android look better by only offering PiP on there.

 

[HQuest]

Netflix: already offers PIP on iOS 14
Amazon Prime Video: already offers PIP on iOS 14
Hulu: already offers PIP on iOS 14
YouTube: well, we are having difficulties to implement this feature on the competitor iOS platform... sorry about that...

 

[Justjay27]

The omission of PiP on YTTV is even more egregious given how much people are paying.

Hopefully YT and YTTV will both get it natively on iOS 14.

I enjoy PiP on YT on my jailbroken iPads, but YTTV doesn't have it, even jailbroken -- fingers crossed.

yeah tell me about it, ive tried sling and others but i just the overall UI of YTTV

 

[Justjay27]

Netflix: already offers PIP on iOS 14
Amazon Prime Video: already offers PIP on iOS 14
Hulu: already offers PIP on iOS 14
YouTube: well, we are having difficulties to implement this feature on the competitor iOS platform... sorry about that...

Does youtube on android have PIP? (life long apple user here)

 

[The Game 161]

But you must pay £11.99 for YouTube premium

 

[The Game 161]

Does youtube on android have PIP? (life long apple user here)

Yes it does

 

[InGen]

I don’t think that’s correct. Looking at the Apple’s documentation for the AVPlayerViewController developers can easily disable PiP, so it would be easy for Google to turn it off for non-subscribers.

I believe the reason must either be the lack of specific codec support as others have noted or it’s because Google want to make Android look better by only offering PiP on there.

It’s not that they weren’t able to enable/disable the PiP feature for Premium/Non-Premium members, it’s that it is against App Store policy to charge customers for a feature Apple created and thus Apple would not allow them to charge customers to activate an Apple designed PiP feature.

I’ve seen an article on this (which I can’t find at this time) clearly states the reason PiP wasn’t added earlier was because YouTube was not allowed to put the feature behind their paywall without violating App Store Policy.

 

[randian]

They implement this but still won't fix the stupid way the YT app does backwards navigation?

 

[MacBH928]

I would subscribe to premium and kill all those annoying ads except the premium requires me to login with a Gmail account in which Google will start logging every single activity of mine and tracker me all over the web not to mention keep suggesting to me videos about content I am not really interested in exploring I just saw a video of here or there.

The reason they’ve never implemented this on their iOS/iPadOS apps is because they are unable to activate the feature exclusively for Premium users. Because it’s an Apple API feature not a YouTube built one, they have to add it into their app for everyone or no one at all. And so giving this to everyone would make premium users feel disadvantaged. And also confuse normal users who could PiP their videos but still not turn to screen off without stopping the video

so yeah the implementation of this feature is way overdue but not due to lack of ability to code it in, rather the decision of whether to add it in everyone or no one. The battle continues

They can release a Primium App and solve this issue.

 

[coolfactor]

It has always annoyed me that the YouTube app doesn't support background audio. (YouTube Music supports it, though).

And Epic should have taken the route that YouTube did where they charge a higher price for in-app purchases. Let the customers decide. They might be surprised!

 

[twistedpixel8]

It makes sense to only enable this feature for live videos, as YouTube does not want you to listen to music videos while you do not have the app open. You can only do this with YouTube Premium. Also not sure if it is possible for YouTube to present ads while in PiP mode.

They can’t show ads in PIP mode with the web-based interface either though. I suspect they’ll just have the video stop until you return to YT app to view an ad and then you can enable PIP again. Which I’d be fine with.

 

[ozziegn]

Although a good step forward, it’s still ridiculous this is limited to paying subscribers. We really need a viable YouTube competitor to encourage better feature adoption...

I'm a YouTube Premium subscriber and the $12 per month is well worth not being bugged to death by annoying ads on videos. Especially some videos where they have ads like every two or three minutes or so. Again, that's so damn annoying....

 

[incoherent_1]

I'm a YouTube Premium subscriber and the $12 per month is well worth not being bugged to death by annoying ads on videos. Especially some videos where they have ads like every two or three minutes or so. Again, that's so damn annoying....

Fair point for someone who watches a lot of YouTube, but for me I only watch 1-2 short videos a week, so the price tag doesn’t make sense. Honestly, I’d probably watch more if PIP were free instead of locked behind a paywall.

 

[Tech198]

As much as i hated Picture-in-picture when watching ABC live streams, i reverse my decision... Its ok. I guess Yutube iOS Apple is good. but now i cringe how much i hate it on desktop Youtube now lol

There s just no pleasing me.