How to Finally Enable YouTube Picture-in-Picture on IPhone
Picture-in-picture (or PiP) is a feature that iPhones have since iOS 13 and iPads have since iOS 9. YouTube, being YouTube, is fashionably late to the PiP party; The company announced in June that it will bring the feature to Apple devices for both Premium and regular users, and has just begun rolling out the feature to Apple devices. Of course there is a catch.
PiP is currently a premium feature only.
I know I just said that the company will offer PiP to all users, but Premium subscribers are currently the only ones with access to this feature on iOS and iPadOS. Although it sounds a little treachery, rest assured that this feature will soon appear at all. YouTube simply hasn’t offered a timeline for when this will happen.
That being said, YouTube isn’t just adding this feature to its Premium subscriber apps. In fact, you won’t find PiP options in the YouTube app. Come on, check; he’s not there. No, it looks like YouTube is testing PiP on iOS before deploying it fully, allowing Premium subscribers to try it first, but only if they know where to look.
How to enable PiP Youtube for iPhone
Since PiP on iPhones and iPads is currently an “experimental” feature, you’ll need to enable it on the YouTube “New” page, where they keep their list of “in development” features that you can test as a Premium subscriber. To get started, go to YouTube.com/new and make sure you’re signed in to the correct Google Account on YouTube Premium. Find the Picture-in-Picture option in iOS , then select TRY to confirm.
While YouTube doesn’t specifically mention iPadOS in this subscription feature, you might be able to get it to work on your iPad, according to 9to5Google . However, you may need to uninstall the app and reinstall it in order for this feature to work.
The next time you open the YouTube app with your Premium account, PiP should be active. All you have to do is start the video, then swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or press the Home button) and the video will follow you as a PiP window. You can resize, move and minimize it on the side of the screen just like you can in other PiP windows on iOS.
Oddly enough, this feature will expire on October 31st. It may be on this day that YouTube plans to roll out the feature to all users, not just Premium subscribers, but it’s not clear at this time. Until then, just enjoy PiP while you can.
YouTube PiP Current Issues
YouTube does say that if you lock your device while watching in PiP mode, the video will be paused. You can start playback again using the media controls on the lock screen.
As mentioned above, if PiP on YouTube doesn’t work for you at all, whether you’re using an iPhone or iPad, you may need to uninstall and reinstall the app. Just make sure you are signed in with the correct Google account.
PiP Watching Without Premium Account
YouTube will roll out PiPs to all users, but why wait? You can bypass these restrictions right now if you don’t have a premium account – you just can’t do it through the YouTube app. Check out our complete guide for more information.