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How to Use iOS 14's Picture in Picture Mode to Watch YouTube Videos

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Apr 12, 2001
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iOS 14 brings Picture in Picture mode to the iPhone, allowing movies, TV shows, and videos to be watched in a small window while you do other things on your iPhone.

howtubepip1.jpg

Picture in Picture Mode won't be compatible with the YouTube app until YouTube updates it with support, but for now, you can watch YouTube videos in Picture in Picture Mode through Safari.

pictureinpicturesafari2.jpg

Activating Picture in Picture Mode

  1. Open Safari.
  2. Navigate to the YouTube website.
  3. Find a video that you want to watch.
    youtubepipstep1.jpg
  4. Tap on the square icon at the bottom to put the YouTube media player in full screen mode.
  5. Tap on the video to display the controls.
  6. Tap on the Picture in Picture icon that looks like a larger screen with an arrow going to a smaller screen. Alternatively, double tap with two fingers on the screen or swipe upwards from the bottom of the iPhone to activate Picture in Picture.
    ios14pictureinpicturestep2.jpg
  7. To continue browsing Safari while watching your video, just open another Safari tab, or swipe to get to the Home Screen to open another app.
Once Picture in Picture mode is activated, you can swipe out of Safari to do other things on your iPhone. You can move Picture in Picture windows anywhere on the display and double tap to change the size to small, medium, or large. If you need to use your iPhone's full display but still want to hear the video, you can even drag the Picture in Picture window all the way off the screen.

pictureinpicturesizes.jpg


Exiting Picture in Picture Mode

  1. Tap anywhere on the video to bring up the video controls.
  2. Tap on the Picture in Picture icon in the upper right side of the window. You can also double tap on the video with two fingers.
    pictureinpicturecontrols-1.jpg
  3. Alternatively, if you're done watching the video, tap on the "X" to close it entirely.
For more on how Picture in Picture mode works with apps, the web, and FaceTime, make sure to check out our Picture in Picture guide.

Article Link: How to Use iOS 14's Picture in Picture Mode to Watch YouTube Videos
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/youtube-picture-in-picture-safari/
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YouTube needs to get their **** together. I pay for premium yet I still don’t get a basic feature like this?

Edit: I should be more clear. I was referring to PIP as a whole with YouTube. I’m aware if they did miraculously decide to implement PIP it would take time to come to the iPhone. I was more so referring to them dragging their feet on the iPad side.
 
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macfacts said:
iOS updates are a scam. Apple brags about 99% of users on latest ios version but apps don't take advantage of new iOS features.
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You don’t really understand how anything related to this ecosystem works, do you?
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tgwaste said:
i feel ya.. but I'm sure this will come when iOS 14 is fully released.
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IMG_2632.gif
 
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jaack said:
iOS 14 hasn't even been released yet, it literally just went into beta a few weeks ago so give them some time to update the app
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PIP has been available on the iPad for years, and still they don’t support it. I wouldn’t expect Google to implement it on the iPhone quickly. I just have zero faith that it’ll ever happen.

Solutions like the one in the article are extremely helpful. Though when I watch YouTube I tend to let it auto play the videos. After all these years of watching my up next or whatever has become really good. It sucks having to go back and forth each time a video ends.
 
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macfacts said:
iOS updates are a scam. Apple brags about 99% of users on latest ios version but apps don't take advantage of new iOS features.
Click to expand...
You need to complain to certain developers. It’s not Apple’s fault third party app developers drag their tech heels in updating the apps, or don’t update at all, for that matter.

iOS updates are not a scam.
 
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jaack said:
iOS 14 hasn't even been released yet, it literally just went into beta a few weeks ago so give them some time to update the app
Click to expand...
Yeah, give them some time. We've only been waiting for *checks calendar* five years for Picture in Picture to come to iPad's YouTube app.
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macfacts said:
iOS updates are a scam. Apple brags about 99% of users on latest ios version but apps don't take advantage of new iOS features.
Click to expand...
That's the lazy developer's fault, not Apple's. They give developers all the resources they need to update.
 
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jaack said:
iOS 14 hasn't even been released yet, it literally just went into beta a few weeks ago so give them some time to update the app
Click to expand...
This is a special case, however. Picture in picture is already available on iPad and has been for years, so youtube should have added support for that particular feature long ago. Extending the functionality to iphone on iOS 14 would have been much easier too.
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tgwaste said:
i feel ya.. but I'm sure this will come when iOS 14 is fully released.
Click to expand...
It shouldn’t have to wait until then. iPad already has PIP and has had it for years. It’s not a completely new feature like others, it’s just new to iphone.
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RevTEG said:
Isn’t PIP a paid Youtube feature? If so, why would they “just” update the app to do it for free?
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No, they don’t support PIP at all. Paid subscribers get to keep the video playing in the background and can hear the audio from it while doing other things on their device, but nobody gets PIP for youtube videos. At least not when using the app.
 
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PiP will never come to the YouTube app for everyone. If it did, it be only available to people that pay monthly for Youtube Premium
 
The YouTube iOS app uses a bespoke framework for codecs and decoding video in a raw framebuffer in the app. They have be using it for years since the native iOS came around after Apple's version was ended. Guessing this was because Apple's av frameworks have been buggy and never supported codecs that Google/Youtube cared about like VP9 and others. Generally not an issue, but then when Apple implemented PIP it requires using their player framework to render video and it can't host any arbitrary view. That's why iPad support wasn't just something they could turn on without just fundamentally rewriting the app. Apple built it that way so people didn't abuse the API to show non video content using PIP but at the same time you have to buy fully in to Apple's limited and buggy API for video. I don't know how PIP is implemented on iPhone but if it's the same API as what the iPad did, don't expect youtube to turn it on any time soon. There are possible workarounds but mostly through hacks and things like offline video that youtube support might be broken with PIP (I can't say for sure, it's been years since I built a video app for iOS myself). Honestly I wish apple would do the android way because on Android PIP you can have apps host things like maps for navigation there or any other type of window in PIP and not just video.
 
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