After a long wait, YouTube for iOS is officially gaining picture-in-picture support, allowing all users, non-premium and premium subscribers, to close the YouTube app and continue watching their video in a small pop-up window.
In a statement to GeekWebGuides, YouTube says that picture-in-picture is currently rolling out to all premium subscribers on iOS and that a larger rollout to all US iOS users will take place soon. It's worth noting, again, that this feature will be available to all users, despite some speculation that YouTube may have limited picture-in-picture support for only paying subscribers.
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.
YouTube picture-in-picture has been a constant back and forth game, with it sometimes working via the YouTube website on Safari. Some users have found creative workarounds utilizing Shortcuts to turn off built-in parameters on the YouTube site that disables picture-in-picture. Now, though, with official support rolling out and soon to be more widespread, those workarounds will no longer be needed.
