The YouTube mobile app has a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode, which allows you to shrink the video into a small window that continues playing even when you exit the app. For the longest time, the company reserved this feature for certain users, namely Premium subscribers and those in the US. But now, that’s about to change, as the platform recently declared that it is bringing PiP to all users across the globe.
According to a post announcing the feature, YouTube is rolling out the feature globally for both Android and iOS “in the coming months”. However, there is no mention of a specific timeline. For now, we aren’t seeing this feature for ourselves, so it’s certainly not available for everyone just yet. In any case, it’s only a matter of time until the rollout is complete.
It is also worth noting that not all users will have access to the same benefits. As outlined in the announcement, non-paying users will only be able to use PiP for certain types of videos. To be more specific, free users will only have access to PiP for longform, non-music content. Meanwhile, Premium members will continue to have access to the capability for both music and non-music content. So, PiP won’t work for music videos unless you pay for YouTube Premium. Still, it’s better than nothing.
Either way, once the user has access to the feature, they may need to navigate to the YouTube app settings to enable it. Once that’s done, the user can start watching a video as usual. They should then be able to minimise the app by swiping up or tapping on the home button. This will leave the video playing in a small window.
This window can be moved around the device’s homescreen or layered over another app. Other than that, you can resize the window with pinch or spread gestures.
YouTube also noted that if the feature does not work, the user may have to change their device settings. Further instructions are available on the support page.
(Source: YouTube)
