YouTube Has Blocked This Popular Method of Free Background Playback.
For Christmas, I gifted myself and my husband a YouTube Premium subscription, and while I hate paying for yet another streaming service, it’s quite nice. Ad blocking is included, of course, but there are other perks, too, like additional playback speed options and audio that continues playing in the background after the phone is locked. However, some users have devised ways to access some of these features without a subscription, believing they should be included in the site’s free plan rather than only available for a fee. Google has long been cracking down on ad blockers , but now it’s targeting another common way to circumvent YouTube’s restrictions: free background playback.
This hack was simple to execute. In many cases, all you had to do was watch YouTube in a browser other than Chrome (and certainly not the official YouTube app). For example, Samsung Internet officially offered free background YouTube playback, and the company even published official instructions on how to use it . Brave and Vivaldi also offered this feature. If your browser didn’t support free background playback by default, you could usually find an extension for it .
Unfortunately, according to Android Authority , this hack no longer appears to work in most cases. In late January, the site noticed that users of Samsung Internet , Brave , and Microsoft Edge were complaining that free background playback had stopped working, even if it was enabled in browser settings or via an extension. Google has now responded to the publication’s question, confirming that it intentionally broke free background playback in third-party browsers, regardless of whether it was enabled in browser settings or via an extension.
“The background play feature is exclusively for YouTube Premium subscribers,” a company spokesperson stated. “While some non-Premium users were previously able to access it through mobile web browsers in certain scenarios, we’ve updated the experience to ensure consistency across all our platforms.” Well, damn. I’ve reached out to Google for further comment, but it seems the eye of Sauron is upon us. Google is now officially taking action against more than just ad blocking.
However, while Google’s efforts appear to be affecting many users, not everyone can access background playback without paying. One user reported that the feature has been re- enabled in Brave , and I can confirm that I can access it in Safari on my iPhone using the Vinegar extension .
It’s unclear how long these attempts will remain in effect, but at least we’ve now identified the cause. YouTube’s free background playback wasn’t broken by accident, meaning developers and users will have to be especially inventive to keep this feature working in the future.