One of the newest features of iOS 14 is the picture-in-picture mode, which lets you watch video in a small window while doing other things on your iPhone. If you want to watch a YouTube video in Safari while chatting with your friends or checking email, it’s easy to tell. But unfortunately, it looks like YouTube has done something to prevent videos from continuing when PIP mode is activated – unless you pay a YouTube premium.
See for yourself. Drag a video to YouTube’s website in Safari on your iPhone and take it full screen. If you tap to drag playback controls, you should see a picture-in-picture icon in the upper-left corner of your screen. Tap it, and the video briefly goes to its own window before returning to its normal location on the YouTube site. And if you try to go back to your home screen while watching a video in full screen, you’ll see it flicker briefly in picture-in-picture mode before disappearing.
Interestingly, observed by MCummers, You you can If YouTube videos are embedded on a website, watch them in picture-in-picture mode. And if you have a YouTube premium, picture-in-picture works as expected. But if you are a free user it is not working properly. Accordingly yesterday was not the case recently MCummers, And I remember it working on iOS 14 beta before the official release of the software this week.
Regardless of whether you’ve got a free or premium account, Picture-in-Picture mode still works with YouTube videos in Safari if you’re using an iPad.
It is unclear if this is an error or if YouTube has intentionally removed the functions. For its own app, YouTube limits the ability to play videos in the background to premium YouTube subscribers. It seems reasonable that YouTube wants to restrict picture-in-picture to its paying subscribers.
Google and Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
