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

This sounds like something a third party browser or Safari plugin could easily add in... assuming third party browsers are allowed to do PIP at all. Just have a little script add or remove whatever attribute from the video that's there if you're premium and not if you're not... or am I crazy to assume this can be done solely from the client side?
 
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Works with the video in this article, through Newsify, my RSS reader of choice on iOS.
 
There is an app that has done this perfectly on iPad for years and now it has been brought to iPhone too.
I have had nothing but great experience with it.

CornerTube:
apps.apple.com

‎CornerTube - PiP for YouTube

‎Watch your YouTube videos in Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode from anywhere. • Today Widget: CornerTube comes with a Today Widget that detects YouTube link in your clipboard, your favorite YouTube video is just a tap away from your Notification Center. • Action Extension: CornerTube also has an...
apps.apple.com apps.apple.com
 
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Just tested it on iOS 14.
Didn’t work on the mobile YouTube website on safari as it used to. But still works on the desktop site.

It so annoying as the PiP icon still displays on the mobile website while the video is in full screen but as I press it, the video goes to PiP and then automatically reverts. Such a jerk move.

This is an iOS 9 iPad feature! And they have neglected it on purpose. We might never have it on the app as they wanna charge for it but Apple doesn’t allow system features behind a paywall. They rather just scrape it so neither paid nor free users can use it 🤦🏻‍♂️

And don’t get me started on allowing at least 1440p playback.. still capped online and on the app at 1080p on both iOS and iPadOS 14 after a beta tease 😤 😡
 
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I can see on an iPad, but I have to question the usefulness of PIP on a screen size as small as a phone.
 
Those of us with Hulu are having the exact same issue. Worked for all the iOS 14 betas until the Gold Master and now the release version. Also, still broken in yesterday’s 14.2 beta.
 
An issue I’ve seen after the upgrade to iOS 14 (not a premium user) is that I can’t airplay to my Apple TV and either change apps, or let the screen sleep. Was hoping it’s a bug, but I suspect it’s part of the issue described here.
 
There is where the you don't have control of your iPad. Not being able to do things on Safari is just wrong. How can Google , in this case, override what you do in Safari. There is where iOS fails compared to a desktop OS.
 
Just played 22 videos on iOS 14 and can confirm PIP. For those who do not have it, check if you have PIP enabled.
 
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hovscorpion12 said:
Just played 22 videos on iOS 14 and can confirm PIP. For those who do not have it, check if you have PIP enabled.
Click to expand...
If you pay for Premium it’ll work, otherwise you can see the button to enter PiP, and even tap it, but the moment it finishes animating into PiP it snaps back to playing inline.

PiP does, however, still work perfectly if you go to the embed URL. I quickly threw together a Safari share sheet shortcut to do just that.
 
Wonders if YouTube removes all their stupid censorship if I switch to premium...

[insert Philosoraptor meme]
 
JM said:
Because YouTube is... pick your derogatory term.

Remember when they took away the ability to play audio of videos with the screen off?
Click to expand...
Yeah, YT on a phone is annoying trash - it's all about trying to make sure you're watching those ads. Unbelievably awesome on a laptop though, especially w adblocker installed (oh, and I can turn the screen brightness to zero and it still works, ha). Result - I rarely bother w it on my phone, but binge on it regularly on my laptop.
 
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Just tested it.
After the iOS update came out the other day, the PIP worked on the iPhone's Safari browser while viewing on YT.
Max screen the video and press the PIP icon on the upper left corner and it worked.

Now, the PIP will work for about 1 second that PIP reverted back to normal video.
YT disabled the PIP feature!
 
Shots fired back from google! I love that Apple called youtube out like this. Such a gimmick for youtube to disable audio on purpose when the app isnt on the screen just to try and get people to pay. They have enough money. Let people pay for ad-free content. And let the rest just function as it should.
 
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centauratlas said:
"it's not clear what's going on"

Sounds like they are actively blocking it to get people to pay for Premium. ~$12/month, no thanks.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I’m not a sucker to reward company that does this kind of thing. Actually I’ll do the reverse. I would watch YouTube less.
 
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On an iPad using the app Pipifier and the built in Pip button from full screen both still work for me. So, only iPhone restriction? I don't have YT Premium.
 
There is JavaScript code on the mobile YouTube website that actively stops playback when the tab loses focus, presumably to block background audio and now PIP.
 
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