Mike Peterson
YouTube says it is rolling out support for iOS 14 picture-in-picture mode to Premium members, with a launch to all U.S. iOS users planned for the future.
"Picture-in-Picture (PiP) allows users to watch YouTube videos in a small mini player while simultaneously browsing outside of the YouTube app on their mobile device," YouTube said in a statement. "We're starting to roll out PiP for YouTube Premium members on iOS and plan to launch PiP for all US iOS users as well."
In other words, picture-in-picture support will start appearing as a feature for YouTube Premium members globally. In the future, YouTube will add PiP support to its iOS app for all users in the U.S. — not just paid ones.
YouTube confirmed the rollout in a statement toto AppleInsider. Earlier on Friday, MacRumors was the first to report the statement.
Picture-in-picture debuted in iOS 14 back in 2020, though YouTube support has been sporadic. For example, YouTube enabled, disabled, and then re-enabled PiP several times in 2020.
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20 Comments
So it’s going to be a premium feature but it’s also going to be a free feature? Considering it’s baked in Apple API goodness I guess that’s…generous?
Also, is it new feature on AI to have auto-play videos that cover the content and cannot be closed?
I guess mentioning that they were now going to use Apple's API'S on the TV did not happen?...
I’m nervous to mention exactly how I get the pip to work for YouTube. Just putting it out there; It happened by a fluke the first time and I have been able to replicate it pretty much on demand. Hopefully their update won’t fix the bug.