YouTube will launch Picture-in-Picture view for all US iOS users, starting with Premium subscribers – TechCrunch

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Although YouTube has been supporting picture-in-picture viewing on Android devices since 2018, YouTube told TechCrunch today that it plans to roll out the feature to all iOS users in the US on both iPhones and iPads. For now, YouTube invites Premium subscribers to test this feature, which allows users to watch picture-in-picture videos in a mini player while browsing other apps. The trial period for Premium users ends on October 31, but YouTube doesn’t have a timeline to share when all US iOS users have access to the feature.

While this is a mobile feature, Premium subscribers must allow the ability to test it via the YouTube Experiments website on the desktop. Last year, YouTube made enabling experiments a Premium perk.

If you scroll down on the experiments website, you will see “Picture-in image on iOS” with the option to try it out. So if you watch a video on the YouTube app, you should see a picture-in-picture view of the video when you exit the app.

After viewing a video via picture-in-picture, you can adjust the position where the video appears on the screen and how big it is. When you tap the video, you will return to the YouTube app. If you lock your phone, the video will be paused.

Some users have reported that you may need to delete and reinstall the YouTube app for it to work.

This feature differs from the existing Picture-in-Picture functionality in the YouTube app for iOS in that it allows you to continue watching a video even while browsing elsewhere on your phone. Similar features already exist on streaming apps like Netflix.

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