YouTube reportedly testing Picture in Picture for its iOS app
William GallagherApple's iOS 14 brings Picture in Picture to iPhones, but only when apps support it
Some users are reporting seeing support in the latest YouTube app update for Picture in Picture on iPhone and iPad, allowing viewers to use other apps while continuing to watch.
After finally revamping its Apple TV app to play 4K videos, YouTube appears to now be also updating its iOS version. While the feature appears to currently only be in testing, some users are seeing the iPhone and iPad YouTube app supporting Picture in Picture for the first time.
Picture in Picture working on iPadOS with the YouTube app.
— Daniel Yount (@dyountmusic) August 27, 2020
(But only worked with this live stream, there must be some codec trickery happening behind the scenes for certain playback scenarios). pic.twitter.com/75vG7Ai4ln
Although PiP has been available on iPads since iOS 9 in 2015, it has not worked with YouTube videos. Now as Apple brings PiP to the iPhone with iOS 14, YouTube appears to be planning to support it.
However, even Twitter user Daniel Yount who spotted the feature has not been able to make it work consistently. He found it during a live stream and has not, so far, seen it working with any other YouTube content.
Daniel Yount's tweet was first spotted by 9to5mac.
YouTube has not commented on when the feature will be made available. Even when the feature is out of testing, it's likely to only be made available for YouTube Premium subscribers.
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William Gallagher and Mike Wuerthele
