YouTube Says iOS Picture-in-Picture Coming to All US Users

[hot-gril]

Can it also play audio while the phone is locked? Ironically an iPhone running iOS 9 or earlier can play YT audio in the background in Safari. They intentionally nerfed it in iOS 10. Had to download some sketchy "DolphinX" browser instead.

Why in the world would this be a US-exclusive feature?

Dunno, but if I lived outside the US, I'd probably have a VPN by now.

 

[coffeeplease]

In a statement to MacRumors, YouTube says that picture-in-picture is currently rolling out to all premium subscribers on iOS...

Was it not the case that premium subscribers had already paid for this feature? What exactly is changing for premium subscribers?

 

[slplss]

Time to make US account 🙄. Feels like 2005, when most US services weren’t available overseas.

 

[Michael Scrip]

It was always stupid of them to have intentionally disabled this feature and then paywalled unlocking it.

The paywall is exactly the reason they disabled it!

But it sounds like this feature will soon be for all users. So that's nice.

 

[Kylo83]

Can it also play audio while the phone is locked? Ironically an iPhone running iOS 9 or earlier can play YT audio in the background in Safari. They intentionally nerfed it in iOS 10. Had to download some sketchy "DolphinX" browser instead.


Dunno, but if I lived outside the US, I'd probably have a VPN by now.

It’s not I’m in the U.K. and have it

 

[jonnysods]

Man this would be so handy, its so frustrating to have YT shut off when I need to jump into another app quickly.

 

[mistafro]

Now if only they can make their YouTube Apple TV app suck less! Enable bloody click and hold for actions and fix the damn navigation to match the rest of the system, seesh! I wish their was a competitive alternative!

 

[hausjam]

It’s bad enough you want me watching 5” videos. Now you want me watching 1” videos? GTFO.

 

[Kylo83]

Now it’s time to make dark mode system wide without manually changing it and also make every video play in highest video setting the new always higher setting doesn’t work and I still have to change it up all the time, I want it to always play the highest setting

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Okay fine. But I've already reached a point where I would happily pay YouTube to stop 'inviting' me to spend a lot of money every month to have... Oh wait...

 

[fwmireault]

Why in the world would this be a US-exclusive feature?

This. I understand when there’s legal concerns regarding the avaibility of some features (ex Siri) but PiP youtube is requested since years by iOS users and not just US. It’s a non-sens for me

 

[eddiezus]

that means it’s gonna take forever to roll out, they are STILL rolling out system wide dark/light mode settings for iOS.

 

[_Spinn_]

The current PiP work-arounds using the Scripts disable video ads...so honestly, I might just stick to what I'm currently doing for my iPhone haha!

That’s what I do to. I have a shortcut setup that runs a script on the website to enable PiP mode. I don’t even use the app.

iOS 14: Picture in Picture Not Working in YouTube? Here's a Workaround

In iOS 14, Apple added a Picture in Picture mode on iPhone that lets you watch a video in a small screen on your device while you continue to do...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Benjamin Nabulsi]

Finally, It took them 10 years

 

[hsotnicam8002]

It’s not I’m in the U.K. and have it

?

 

[Delorean2006]

I had this feature for like 2-3 weeks with YouTube then randomly lost it, glad they’re finally rolling it out to all users.

 

[one more]

A few people in the U.K. have it so it’s not just us

Are they premium or regular users? 🤔

 

[Altis]

Can it also play audio while the phone is locked? Ironically an iPhone running iOS 9 or earlier can play YT audio in the background in Safari. They intentionally nerfed it in iOS 10. Had to download some sketchy "DolphinX" browser instead.


Dunno, but if I lived outside the US, I'd probably have a VPN by now.

It's very curious to me why Apple removed the browser ability to continue playing in the background or while the screen is off. It shouldn't be any of the website's business what state my device is in.

I was able to do it longer using Opera browser but I don't think it works well anymore.

Still, at least adblock generally works in Safari. I have no idea why people use the Youtube app in the first place.

 

[tann]

It was like this on Android too, maybe it still is, but within the US PIP is free for all users, but outside it was premium only. No one really knew why.

 

[colllin]

Of course they would support PiP for everyone. More watching = more money. And of course they won’t support background play for non-paying customers — they only make money when you watch a video ad, or pay a subscription.

 

[GreyOS]

So. I always figured they didn’t allow this because you can swipe the video to the side and it will continue to play. This means you can play the ads without watching them.

Is there a way for them to suspend playback when it’s swiped to the side?

 

[Kylo83]

Are they premium or regular users? 🤔

Premium

 

[akeita]

PiP with YouTube on Safari is quite hit-or-miss. PiP with YouTube on Chrome works every time. I have Chrome installed just for YouTube PiP.

Let's not sugarcoat it; Google tries to get people to pay for a feature but people refuse.

 

[madsci954]

In the immortal words of Mabel Pines…

 

[rgeneral]

you can get PiP without the YouTube app.