In 2020, Apple’s iOS 14 was released with a ton of features, one of which was the ability to use Picture-in-Picture. However, this feature was only working with the safari-version of apps.
Android has had the ability to use picture-in-picture natively, but iOS did not have this feature.
Let’s take a look at how to enable picture-in-picture in YouTube on iPhone or iPad (running on iOS 14 or iOS 15).
What is Picture-in-Picture
Picture-in-Picture or PiP is a feature that allows you to watch a video and use other apps at the same time. When enabled, the video is shrunk into a smaller window and is pinned to a corner of the screen of your mobile device.
How to use PiP on iPhone
In the past, PiP was only available to the safari-version of video streaming apps. For example, you go to the safari-version of YouTube, start watching a video and then press the home button/swipe up to the home screen, and you will see that the video is shrunk to a much smaller-sized window and you can then use other apps alongside watching the video.
Apple had introduced this feature with the release of iOS 14 in 2020. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were among the first few apps to enable this feature natively on iOS.
How to play YouTube Video in PiP on iPhone
YouTube is finally rolling out this feature starting with its premium subscribers. It’s not available for everyone just yet, you need to be a premium subscriber from the US, they will roll it out to its premium subscribers in other countries in the near future. Non-Premium users will also be able to use this feature in the future, but we do not know when.
So, if you are not already a premium subscriber, you may not have this option yet. YouTube hasn’t said when they will release this feature for non-premium users, but they should make it available to everyone soon, hopefully it’s very soon.
Now, to use this feature, you need to make sure that you are running YouTube app version 16.23.3 or newer, so make sure to update YouTube app. Also, make sure that you are subscribed to the YouTube Premium service to use this feature.
Now, the next thing you need to do is to make sure the PiP setting is enabled in the YouTube App.
To do this:
- Launch the YouTube App
- Tap on your profile icon in the top-right corner.
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on General
- Toggle on “Picture-in-Picture”
- Once enabled, you’re good to go.
Now let’s take a look at how to use Picture-in-Picture in YouTube on iPhone or iPad.
- Launch the YouTube App.
- Play any video.
- Press the Home Button / Swipe up from the home bar to go home.
- You will now see that the video is being played on a small window.
You can reduce the size of this window or pin it into any corner/side of your choice by dragging it.
You can also hide the window completely by pushing the video to the side of the screen. To bring the video back, just tap on the arrow where you’ve hid the window.
You can use this feature on iPhone and iPad as well. It requires the same steps as the ones mentioned above.
We’re glad we have this ability, we wish they bring it out to more people, but right now, it is only available to its premium-subscribers in the US and we haven’t seen it rolled out anywhere else. If you have seen this feature rolled out to you, we would love to hear it from you in the comments below. Also, we’d love to hear what version you’re on as far as iOS and the YouTube App version, and also what country you’re in.
Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this article in a couple of weeks, if you’re reading this at that point, you will already have this feature rolled out to you or in your country as well. Let us know if you already have it available and which country you’re in, and if not, hopefully you’ll have it available soon.
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