YouTube Picture-in-Picture mode on iPhone.
YouTube Premium subscription brings a lot of features to the table. One of the features included is background play. It basically allows you to let the video play in the background while you do something else on your smartphone. While this is good for music, when watching a video you need something called ‘Picture-in-Picture’ mode.
Apple has introduced the PiP feature on iPhones with the latest iOS 14 update. While the feature is available for WhatsApp or Facetime video calls, it is still not available for the YouTube app’s video playback. However, there is a workaround for this.
Notably, the workaround uses a web browser and does not require you to have a YouTube Premium subscription. Also, you will need to update your iPhone or iPad to the latest iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 respectively. With that out of the way, here’s how you can use Picture-in-Picture mode on your iPhone to play YouTube videos:
- Open Safari or the browser of your choice.
- Head over to www.youtube.com.
- Search for the video you would like to play. You can also choose to log in here in order to get your feed loaded.
- Play the video of your choice and tap on the full-screen option.
- Now tap on the Picture-in-Picture mode icon. It will be available right next to the close window icon on the top right corner.
Unless YouTube decides to take away this feature from free users, you can enjoy video playbacks using a web browser on your iPhone. We are also looking forward to an update to the YouTube app that brings the feature to the app itself.
