[Updated] YouTube Picture-in-Picture (PiP) should be a standard iOS feature like it is on Android

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on March 06, 2022) follows:

YouTube’s business model relies heavily on ads. Naturally, this model prevents users of the mobile app from playing videos in the background since doing so means the screen won’t be at the front when interacting with content.

And if the screen isn’t in the foreground, you won’t see the ads that are meant to generate revenue for the company. This explains why background playback is limited to YouTube Premium subscribers.

Another feature that was also limited to paying YouTube subscribers is Picture-in-Picture (PiP). But things have since changed, with the function now available for free subscribers running Android Oreo and above.

For some reason, though, this luxury hasn’t been fully extended to iOS users of the app. But things might change soon. Probably. How soon? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here’s the thing. YouTube PiP was initially limited to Red users (now YouTube Premium) of the Android app until mid-2018 when tests started for non-premium users of the app. However, this was limited to the U.S. market, but later spread out to parts outside the U.S.

With Android having received the feature, iOS would get it soon after, right? Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, it took YouTube over two years to announce PiP for iOS, noting that all premium users would get it first followed by free users later on.

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. 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.
Source

But ever since this announcement was made, only YouTube premium subscribers on iOS have been able to access the Picture-in-Picture function, and that too as an “experimental feature”.

The initial testing period was to last 3 months ending October 31, 2021. But this was postponed to January 31, 2022 and later February 14, dates that are now behind us. As I pen this, YouTube PiP testing window has been further extended to April 8, 2022.

While Google is still adamant that PiP will come to all YouTube users in the U.S. once testing ends, the continued delay of its arrival is becoming a concern for some users.

For a feature that has been standard on Android for years now, one wonders why Google hasn’t made it available for everyone on iOS too. As noted, it’s only limited to premium subscribers for testing purposes.

This means that even current paying subscribers have to jump through a hoop to access it. So, why is it taking Google ages to bring PiP support to all iOS users of the YouTube app, both premium and free subscribers?

One likely explanation that comes to mind is that Google may be keeping the good stuff to itself (Android) and only offering them to the Apple community that can pay in what is yet another classical war between the two tech giants.

These two are always battling for supremacy, and it seems Google is simply playing along. It’s also possible that Apple may be unhappy with the way Google wants to implement PiP on iOS and the two can’t come to some sort of compromise.

Of course, these are just some of the educated guesses floating around. But at this point, no one really knows why YouTube PiP hasn’t been made standard on iOS.

There could be some hidden reasoning behind this continued delay that we don’t know of. Regardless, there’s little justification for the lack of PiP as a standard feature on iOS just like it has been for years on Android.

With iOS 14, Apple introduced a Picture-in-Picture mode on the iPhone and while this mode wasn’t supported on the YouTube app, one could enjoy PiP when accessing the video platform on Safari web browser.

Perhaps to push YouTube users into signing up for the premium package in order to access this function, Google nixed the workaround not long after. But this didn’t deter iOS users from finding alternatives.

In iOS 15, one can install the Shortcuts and Scriptable apps to enable YouTube PiP on the iPhone. Even though I couldn’t get it to work on my device for whatever reason, several others say this trick worked for them.

As an iPhone user, I shouldn’t have to go through all this trouble just to use a feature that Android users have had for years. And I hope Google and Apple get their acts together and bring native PiP support to the YouTube app sooner than later.

Do let us know your thoughts on the continued lack of native Picture-in-Picture support on the YouTube iOS app in the comments section below.

07:17 pm (IST): YouTube Picture-in-picture feature is now officially available in the US for iOS and iPadOS users. Its even available for non-premium users.

This feature is currently rolling out and will be widely available in the coming days for users running iOS 15 or above, YouTube confirmed via Twitter (Tweet now deleted).

Also, YouTube has reportedly ended the Picture-in-picture test on iOS for premium subscribers. This feature has now disappeared from YouTube’s list of experimental features. More on that here.

11:58 am (IST): YouTube has announced that it is now rolling out PiP (Picture-in-picture) to all iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 15.0 or above.

It is available for Premium members globally, while users in the US can also use it without a Premium subscription. More on that here.

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