iOS 14 Picture in Picture No Longer Working With YouTube's Mobile Website in Safari [Without Premium]

[MacRumors]

Apple in iOS 14 added Picture in Picture to the iPhone, a feature designed to let you watch a video in a small screen on your device while you continue to do other things on the phone.

When Picture in Picture was working with YouTube​

The YouTube app doesn't support Picture in Picture, but up until yesterday there was a functional workaround that allowed videos from YouTube.com to be watched in Safari in Picture in Picture mode.

As of today, that workaround is gone, and it's not clear if it's a bug or a deliberate removal. Attempting to use Picture in Picture on a video on the mobile YouTube website simply doesn't work. Tapping the Picture in Picture button when in full screen mode pops the video out for a second, but it immediately pops back into the website, so it can't be used as a Picture in Picture window.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1307036897504563201

Picture in Picture works with YouTube.com on the iPad, and YouTube videos embedded on third-party sites such as MacRumors.com appear to be able to play in Picture in Picture mode, but Picture in Picture is not functioning on the YouTube website.

We tested Picture in Picture with YouTube just yesterday for a Picture in Picture tutorial video and as you can see below, it was working fine. Since then there have been no updates to iOS or Safari, so it's not clear what's going on.

For now, Picture in Picture is no longer working with the mobile YouTube website, but there is another workaround. If you request desktop site on YouTube.com in Safari, you can get Picture in Picture to work as intended.

Update: Picture in Picture appears to work on the mobile YouTube website in Safari for those who are YouTube Premium subscribers, which suggests that the restriction is intentional and not a bug.

Article Link: iOS 14 Picture in Picture No Longer Working With YouTube's Mobile Website in Safari [Without Premium]

 

[JM]

Because YouTube is... pick your derogatory term.

Remember when they took away the ability to play audio of videos with the screen off?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

What’s so hard about adding it on YouTube. I don’t understand.

 

[Zmmyt]

Fair enough. I started paying for Premium. Got fed up with the ads and I DO watch a lot of YouTube. Worth the price.

EDIT: I think YouTube removed this feature to get more people to sign up to Premium.

 

[useless.misc]

Might be some magic on Google's end to reinforce that you should upgrade to YT Premium to view anything outside the app/page.

 

[HeavenDynamic]

These guys are fast when it comes to make you want to pay for Premium.

 

[Martinpa]

What’s so hard about adding it on YouTube. I don’t understand.

It’s not that it’s hard, it’s that they want you to pay for a premium membership, in which they’ll bundle expected features like PiP and audio playback while the screen is off.

 

[iMerik]

What’s so hard about adding it on YouTube. I don’t understand.

Because YouTube wants you to pay Premium if you want a video/audio to play in the background (not the app in focus). This was a brief way around that.

Yeah, what Martinpa just said.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I use a siri shortcut with Scriptable that works

 

[anticipate]

It works if you force Safari to desktop mode on the phone. That’s the way it’s always been.

I just tested this.

I am also YouTube premium subscriber though, so I’m not sure if that has something to do with it.

Normally YouTube only allows picture in picture within their app. Even if you were a premium subscriber of the only thing that plays in the background on iOS is the audio. I suspect this may be always the case, but I hope Google can figure a way around this so that premium users can use the iOS provided picture in picture within the iOS app.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Might be some magic on Google's end to reinforce that you should upgrade to YT Premium to view anything outside the app/page.

That was my first thought.

 

[The Game 161]

Lol maybe means it's coming to the app on premium

 

[outdevo]

I have premium and it doesn’t work with the YouTube app. Does it work for you? Seems like deliberate handicapping like no keyboard controls for iPads, etc, to nudge you to the dark side.

 

[Bistroengine]

This and no 4K content on the tvOS 14 YouTube app yet sounds like Google actively working against these new features Apple is trying to roll out.

 

[JosephAW]

So html api in safari has an option to block pip? They didn’t custom code safari to do this now did they?

 

[jamieinoc]

You can still do it. Pull up the YouTube video in safari. Go full screen, then swipe up to go home. The video will go into PIP and continue to play.

 

[LegCortex]

Given YouTube’s ongoing mischief (enabling and then hobbling 4K playback on iOS/iPadOS 14) this feels deliberate.

 

[brock2621]

Fair enough. I started paying for Premium. Got fed up with the ads and I DO watch a lot of YouTube. Worth the price.

EDIT: I think YouTube removed this feature to get more people to sign up to Premium.

This... no other reason.

 

[4jasontv]

Still works for me. Must have been a bug they already fixed.

 

[JokerPower]

And what if their Premium is not available in my country?!

 

[jamieinoc]

You can still do it. Pull up the YouTube video in safari. Go full screen, then swipe up to go home. The video will go into PIP and continue to play.

I stand corrected. I am YouTube Premium and even the PIP button worked. I logged out and went to the same video and saw the behavior described in the article. It seems google is somehow actively blocking PIP for non-premium subscribers.

 

[4jasontv]

Fair enough. I started paying for Premium. Got fed up with the ads and I DO watch a lot of YouTube. Worth the price.

EDIT: I think YouTube removed this feature to get more people to sign up to Premium.

Only problem is that Premium doesn't offer PiP. It only offers background audio, which is likely due to people just playing music video playlists in the background instead of paying for Google Music... which is also now part of Premium.

 

[techpr]

This and no 4K content on the tvOS 14 YouTube app yet sounds like Google actively working against these new features Apple is trying to roll out.

tvOS 14 Not Supporting 4K YouTube Videos Yet

 

[4jasontv]

I stand corrected. I am YouTube Premium and even the PIP button worked. I logged out and went to the same video and saw the behavior described in the article. It seems google is somehow actively blocking PIP for non-premium subscribers.

Open YT in private mode and it starts to work and then closes the video stream.

...

That seems intentional.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Try browsing youtube videos through Duckduckgo and it should work.