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YouTube flip-flops back to picture-in-picture not coming to iOS 15

YouTube has walked back a statement claiming that picture-in-picture support would be coming in "days" to its app on iOS.

Earlier on Monday, YouTube Support said in a tweet that picture-in-picture mode would be arriving on iOS 15 devices in a matter of days. That statement closely followed the company disabling the feature on its iOS app on Sunday.

However, later on Monday, YouTube clarified that it meant picture-in-picture mode would be coming to its paid YouTube TV service for iOS — and not YouTube. YouTube also deleted the tweet mentioning that picture-in-picture support would be returning to iOS devices.

Additionally, the company then said that picture-in-picture mode for the standard YouTube app was only available to Premium members on Android mobile devices.

The feature, which allows users to watch YouTube content while browsing other apps on iOS, first arrived on iPhone and iPad devices for YouTube Premium subscribers in August 2021. At the time, however, the feature was only experimental.

After a nine-month trial run of being offered on YouTube for iOS, the video streaming platform was scrubbed from the iPhone and iPad app. YouTube says that the feature has been "turned off."

Back in March, YouTube said that picture-in-picture support would be rolling out to all YouTube TV users later in 2022.



9 Comments

sherwinzadeh 16 Years · 16 comments

Use the PiP-it app and watch Picture in Picture without ads!

gregoriusm 17 Years · 518 comments

And yet did it not just turn that around again and say it actually is coming to YouTube soon? 

StrangeDays 8 Years · 12986 comments

Nothing says “delight your customers” like charging for a feature the platform offers for free. 

Why so user-hostile, Google?

itinj24 5 Years · 51 comments

Im getting PIP for the YouTube app and it works great… and I also see there’s an update today for the app. That notification badge for the App Store is driving me nuts. What to do what to do lol.