This Extension Allows You to Finally Play YouTube in the Background on Mobile Devices

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YouTube for mobile has never been perfect. Unlike watching YouTube on a computer, where you have the option to leave the video to play in the background, YouTube on mobile is usually tied to the app or website you use to watch it. And if you want all the bells and whistles – like ad-free streaming – you need to pay for YouTube Premium no matter what device you’re using. That is, unless you take a different route.

Vinegar Solves Most of Your YouTube Problems

Introducing Vinegar ( $ 1.99 on the App Store ), the YouTube extension you didn’t know you needed. The extension, developed by And a Dinosaur , works on iPhone, iPad and Mac and fixes many serious issues with the video streaming service.

Vinegar’s most immediate, visible and highly anticipated action is to remove ads from videos. While ads are an important source of income for many YouTube content creators, they are also frustrating, aggressive, and often targeted. While you may have dealt with ads using one of the many ad blockers available, Vinegar conveniently has a built-in feature.

BTW, Vinegar also prevents YouTube from tracking your game, pause, and look for activity. If, after reading this sentence, you think, “Hmm, is YouTube tracking my games, pauses, and activity searches?” you’re not alone. I guess many of us didn’t know this, and not necessarily surprised, but alarmed nonetheless by YouTube and Google’s creepy spying.

This extension also returns the picture to picture on mobile YouTube. The service generally restricts picture-in-picture on iOS to YouTube Premium users only, even if you are using YouTube for the web in Safari. Vinegar gets around this by allowing you to keep your focus on the YouTube window as you navigate to other apps.

My favorite feature? Vinegar also lets you use audio only, as it allows your video to continue playing even when Safari is in the background. This means you can finally listen to YouTube music as you go about your day, or feel free to quickly switch between apps without having to pause the audio in the video. This is as close as possible to replicating the YouTube viewing experience on a computer.

While you can switch between Safari tabs and continue playing videos, you can’t just switch apps or lock your phone and wait for playback to continue; you will need to select “Audio” on the right side of the video quality options at the top of the playback window for this to work.

Are there any downsides to using Vinegar for YouTube?

Yes. However, for now, only one: unfortunately there is no 4K or HDR support when using Vinegar. Depending on your device, this might not get in the way of the deal, as non-4K devices are maxed out at 1080p on YouTube anyway. For Mac or compatible iPhones and iPads, however, this is a bummer. Hopefully Dinosaur will bring 4K HDR support in the future.

How to get vinegar for iPhone, iPad and Mac

You can download Vinegar from the Mac, iPhone, and iPad app stores for a one-time fee of $ 1.99. That’s one-sixth of the cost of one month of YouTube Premium, which seems like a good deal:

[ HowToGeek ]

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