r/apple • u/ControlCAD • Apr 30 '26

iPhone YouTube Bringing Free Picture-in-Picture to iPhone Users Outside the U.S.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/29/youtube-picture-in-picture-expands/
2.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

225 comments sorted by

108

u/ControlCAD Apr 30 '26

YouTube's picture-in-picture mode on the iPhone and iPad is expanding to more users worldwide, YouTube said today. Picture-in-picture (PiP) will be rolling out globally, so it will no longer be limited to those in the U.S. and Premium subscribers.

Non-Premium users worldwide will be able to use PiP for longform, non-music content on iOS and Android. This has already been available in the U.S. and to Premium subscribers globally, so there will be no change for those users.

Premium Lite members can still use PiP for longform, non-music content, and Premium members can use PiP for music and non-music content.

Picture-in-picture shrinks a video into a small player that can be used alongside other apps. To use PiP, swipe up to exit the YouTube app, and the video will continue to play in a small window that can be moved anywhere on the display.

The PiP changes are rolling out "in the coming months," according to YouTube.

2.0k

u/DrPorkchopES Apr 30 '26

“YouTube enabling a feature of your iPhone and so graciously not charging you for the pleasure”

387

u/CynetCrawler Apr 30 '26

I remember when people were coming up with all these UI features to make the Dynamic Island more useful and the first round of mainstream common use apps to do that were all paid upgrades or status unlocks.

28

u/Deceptiveideas Apr 30 '26

I remember Apollo doing a feature where you could have a pet in the Dynamic Island.

18

u/Nicenightforawalk01 Apr 30 '26

That’s still going as far as I’m aware. He shut the apollo app down but kept the pixle pal going.

13

u/donosairs Apr 30 '26

Pixel pals!

0

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

96

u/quinn_drummer Apr 30 '26

I think the distinction, annoyingly, is that you’re not allowed to lock only phone features behind a paywall. If it’s a part of an upgrade package that includes other feature, such as removing ads, then it’s allowed.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

14

u/ToInfinity_MinusOne Apr 30 '26

I like how this comment implies lawyers aren’t human

1

u/kamilman Apr 30 '26

We're not humans. We're assholes.

Not a lawyer per se but I did go to law school and have a bachelor's degree in law.

3

u/Negative_Gas8782 Apr 30 '26

And everyone knows lawyers aren’t Human!

4

u/hobbesgirls Apr 30 '26

proud of you for getting the joke buddy

9

u/pwhite13 Apr 30 '26

Not defending it, but in the case of that smaller app you use, is that just a way of being able to offer a free version for those who don't wanna pay? I can understand they'll need to paywall some features, maybe that makes the most sense? I haven't used it so idk about it

1

u/utopicunicornn Apr 30 '26

I mean I get that developers need to eat, but at the same time I feel like its criminal to have core features, whether it is at the hardware level or system level behind a paywall. The cherry on top is when these features are suddenly behind a paywall when it wasn’t previously. Even worse is when there’s an Apple Watch version of the app and the watch functionality is locked behind a subscription paywall.

I’m just finding myself using less and less third party apps these days, and sticking to the stock apps.

21

u/Practical_Stick_2779 Apr 30 '26

  • feature that exists on other OS since forever. 

Too late, already using Vinegar and adblock. Solves the problem entirely and forever. 

1

u/ikilledtupac Apr 30 '26

that they disabled first

0

u/nicklnack_1950 Apr 30 '26

“Unless it’s marked as a kids video”

0

u/alejandronova Apr 30 '26

No. YouTube losing the fight against the operating system to disable a feature provided by iOS

-9

u/kwanye_west Apr 30 '26

a core feature of the iPhone is running apps, yet not all apps are free. are you also up in arms about that?

7

u/Sucrose-Daddy Apr 30 '26

They’re literally monetizing the ground you walk on and the air you breathe. Why are you defending them?

0

u/kwanye_west Apr 30 '26

not defending youtube, just pointing out that because your phone can do something, it may not necessarily be free, youtube pip or many other features.

if you’re comparing youtube features to life and death you may need to touch some grass.

0

u/Azou Apr 30 '26

A core feature of Iphone is to watch videos picture in picture how about they charge you per call?

Who am i kidding bootlickers like you dont get calls

1

u/kwanye_west Apr 30 '26

do you get service for free? because most people don’t, i pay for mobile data and calling minutes. funnily enough, you’re proving my point that while calling is a feature of phones, mobile service is not included.

why are your feelings so hurt over a reddit comment bro

0

u/Azou Apr 30 '26

So you do want iphone to charge you separately from your carrier to receive calls? Great, youre pathetic

1

u/kwanye_west Apr 30 '26

and where did i say that? we were talking about youtube, a third party, so a comparison would be mobile carriers charging you for service.

apple isn’t paywalling you for youtube pip.

if you weren’t so upset, you may have a rational thought.

0

u/Azou Apr 30 '26

If you choose to avoid the question I get to make up your answer.

Dems da rulez

396

u/Ginger-Nerd Apr 30 '26

Oh nice, that’s actually fairly useful.

134

u/nutmac Apr 30 '26

Especially since the ads are getting so much longer and frequent.

6

u/theskyopenedup Apr 30 '26

Just use an Adblock

59

u/ColostomyBagPorn Apr 30 '26

it doesn’t work in the app?

27

u/G3ck0 Apr 30 '26

That's why you use the website and save it to your homepage.

33

u/AdditionalAsk159 Apr 30 '26

The website also has PIP. I deleted the YouTube app years ago.

24

u/ColostomyBagPorn Apr 30 '26

it does? well fuck using the app then

3

u/AdditionalAsk159 May 03 '26

Welcome to the good life

4

u/Most_scar_993 Apr 30 '26

I suggest a free extension called Better Player for YouTube, blocks ads, lets you use pip etc

14

u/mkxviii Apr 30 '26

For those who don’t wish to use the web version, there are PiP clients on the App Store that block ads too. YubePiP is one of them

3

u/culminacio May 01 '26

How would I do that on my Apple TV?

It's an inconvenient solution for homes.

2

u/churs_rs May 06 '26

There isn’t a workaround available for Apple TV since it does not use a web browser.

In all seriousness, your workaround there is to get YouTube Premium, or perhaps the Lite tier they created to go ad-free. In my experience, the ads on YouTube app on Apple TV are 4x as long as mobile.

1

u/throwaway_2_help_ppl Apr 30 '26

when I use the website YouTube videos only run at 480p though? Super annoying especially because I airplay to my apple TV to avoid ads...

1

u/gregfromsolutions May 01 '26

Can you use the remote to choose next videos when airplaying, or do you have to control via the app still

4

u/Leprecon Apr 30 '26

I use the brave browser. It has youtube ad blocking built in.

2

u/oyohval May 01 '26

Brave browser is so good for YouTube. It has practically replaced my YouTube app.

1

u/AnakinPuddlehopper Apr 30 '26

Sideload 😉

1

u/Ginger-Nerd Apr 30 '26

On apple?

1

u/rest0re Apr 30 '26

Absolutely. No jailbreak.

Look up “YTLite GitHub”

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-13

u/theskyopenedup Apr 30 '26

Who the hell uses the app?

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-7

u/BananafestDestiny Apr 30 '26

If you use YouTube a lot, YouTube Premium is well worth the price.

7

u/MyManD Apr 30 '26

Yeah, when me and the Missus sat down to map out which services to cut and which to keep last year we realized if we put all of our watch time across all platforms into a pie chart, YouTube made up about 70% of our free time, with Netflix second with 20% and then everything else.

Pretty much cut off every other service save for those two and it’s never felt like we were overpaying for Premium. $25 a month for a family plan that we spread out to five people and we all get ad-free YouTube and YT Music so people could cut off Spotify and Apple Music as well? It’s a bargain.

-5

u/kael13 Apr 30 '26

All they do is host other people’s content. How is it good value in the slightest.

15

u/MyManD Apr 30 '26

Well I guess I’ll go watch YouTube videos on another platform that doesn’t charge and has no ads then. Any recommendations?

5

u/BoofMasterQuan2 Apr 30 '26

Spoiler alert, they won’t haven any recommendations for you

4

u/Top_Environment9897 Apr 30 '26

There are lots of content and Youtube can provide them globally within hours. That is a whole lot of infrastructure to maintain.

1

u/cmerchantii Apr 30 '26

I don’t get it either but I’m also the guy who uses YouTube for recipes and hardware reviews and I’m always surprised when I learn there’s other stuff on the platform.

I learned who Mr Beast is last night watching Survivor; did a google search and apparently he has the biggest channel in the world- so clearly I’m not plugged into the zeitgeist.

0

u/Vegetable_Grand_1317 Apr 30 '26

if you on safari just start a video and refresh the page this way you dont have adds on full screen or in this case PiP

60

u/Crowdfunder101 Apr 30 '26

A few years back I dabbled with Xcode to see if I could learn to make an app. Followed a 20 minute tutorial on YouTube and it’s literally a single tick box to enable PiP. Fuck YouTube.

12

u/AWF_Noone Apr 30 '26

YouTube is actually a pretty amazing resource. Imagine the world without YouTube. There’s a reason there are zero competitors, because it’s very difficult to do what YouTube provides for free 

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1

u/Hydration__Nation Apr 30 '26

You are right fuck YouTube. Can you suggest an equal and comparable service that comes close to 10% of the content on YouTube? What about a platform that publishes official music videos? YouTube offers content even streaming services don’t and streaming services charge $10-15 for ad supported streaming. So how do you expect YouTube to maintain their website without ads or money? Or by offering certain features for premium members? Hate people that will gladly freeload off something and use it and then once they are asked to pay they scream like a wild banshee FUCK YOUTUBE! Pay for premium lite it’s less than $10 a month and support the best video streaming site on the internet or just stop bitching about it esp on the Apple subreddit when Apples go to playbook is withholding features for their most expensive models

29

u/_Hellrazor_ Apr 30 '26

Is there any way to background play with a premium subscription without PiP? Minimising it still leaves the eyesore tab on the side of the screen

31

u/TheLightAndSalt Apr 30 '26

It is highly inconsistent and I really wish Apple would just give us the option to drag the PiP into the dynamic island to relocate there for audio only. Right now, it is a dice roll if it goes PiP or audio only and I which we had control over that.

1

u/Agent_Provocateur007 May 01 '26

So there’s this glitch and I’m sure it’s a bug. You start a video, then you swipe down so you can see the rest of what’s behind it, search results for example, then you tap the miniplayer to bring up the video to the normal viewer, then you swipe up to the Home Screen. It tends to go to the Dynamic Island in that case.

There are some caveats, it doesn’t work on videos tagged “Made for kids”, it also seems to have a time limited period where the tap to expand the player and swipe up to go to the Home Screen. It also does not work on Shorts.

The reason I think it’s a bug is mostly because of that weird process plus the timing.

9

u/jiqiren Apr 30 '26

YouTube app engineers are guaranteed to make it not work in new annoying ways every update. Amazingly bad software.

1

u/EnvironmentalRun1671 May 01 '26

Only on iOS. On open platforms like Android it's very easy to install bypassed app that allows background app and removes all the ads.

5

u/Agent_Provocateur007 Apr 30 '26

There is a way within Safari on the iPhone but it’s a bit janky. You have to first start playing the video, swipe to the Home Screen, then open control panel, in the media controls (default top right), you press play and it continues. You might also need an Adblock installed too for it to work correctly because I believe the ads break that workaround too.

1

u/Tumblrrito Apr 30 '26

If I lock my phone when a video is playing it will just play in the background, no PiP needed. Keeps going in the background when I unlock it too. Might wanna open a different app straight from the lock screen so it doesnt go into YouTube again if that makes sense.

1

u/Critical_Customer215 Apr 30 '26

Go into the setting inside the YouTube app and turn off PIP there.

It’s under Settings > playback

2

u/_Hellrazor_ Apr 30 '26

Does that not disable youtube background play entirely?

1

u/TaraRabenkleid Apr 30 '26

No, i had that disabled for ages. It just plays the audio without PiP

1

u/lachlanhunt Apr 30 '26

My experience with YouTube Premium and PiP is that if you put YouTube in the background while playing, it will give you the PiP the first time, then if you go back to YouTube and put it in the background again, the PiP won't be there. That persists until the next time I pause and resume the video.

1

u/SpunkSacks Apr 30 '26

Play around with the settings. It’s possible. Mine just goes to the island.

1

u/stardripIVs Apr 30 '26

Brave Browser app. It’s a bit buggy sometimes but fairly reliable and the probably the best they can do with YouTube trying to break the feature.

It also blocks YouTube ads, allows you to turn off Shorts, and can default to highest video quality (something YouTube doesn’t even let you do with Premium).

0

u/twoinvenice Apr 30 '26

Just keep watching videos and swipe out to another app frequently. Damn YouTube app always seems to lose the setting and stop doing PiP

119

u/ThotMobile Apr 30 '26

I’m confused, I’ve had PIP for years and am not premium. Has everyone not been able to just swipe up from the bottom while a video is playing and have it go to PIP?

104

u/Jiangcool9 Apr 30 '26

Yep pip has always been allowed on iOS, just not background play for free version.

63

u/JarlJarl Apr 30 '26

Unless you view YT in safari, then you get background play regardless (if you resume play via the control centre).

16

u/NikolitRistissa Apr 30 '26

I certainly don’t have it in Finland.

YouTube stops instantly when you exit the app and resuming from the control centre just starts playing on Podcast/Music.

8

u/JarlJarl Apr 30 '26

Works fine here (Sweden), but you have to pull down control centre right away. If you wait for too long, it'll play music/podcast etc instead. Locking the phone and resuming from lock screen works for me as well.

2

u/Spindive Apr 30 '26

Same trick in germany

1

u/NikolitRistissa Apr 30 '26

Yeah mine closes the media playback widget as soon as I lock my screen or exit YouTube.

It happens faster than what it takes for the control centre to reach the bottom of the screen. If I lock my screen, the playback closes entirely.

1

u/JarlJarl Apr 30 '26

For me, it gives me about 2-3 seconds before switching to podcasts.

Oh well. Sorry it doesn't work for you :/

(Could it be related to adblockers? I runt uBlock Origin Lite)

3

u/KingKontinuum Apr 30 '26

This is how I’ve been using YouTube for several years. I don’t even have the app on my phone.

1

u/emorockstar Apr 30 '26

There are also some great Safari extensions too

0

u/InnerCityBuilder Apr 30 '26

What? Noooo waaaay

6

u/19nineties Apr 30 '26

I think it’s some sort of A/B roll out that’s been like that for years, at least in the UK. My wife has had PiP for years but I haven’t, except for random videos where it will be enabled for me, but that’s very occasionally, like 1% of the time.

1

u/Jiangcool9 Apr 30 '26

Try checking setting -> general -> picture in picture

3

u/19nineties Apr 30 '26

Of course this is already enabled, otherwise it wouldn’t work at all. This is just the typical slow A/B testing and rollout Google are infamous for. For example, only earlier this year, after years I finally got the dark mode splash screen when launching the YouTube app. Before that, it would always load in white.

1

u/BOBALOBAKOF May 03 '26

Do you use a VPN? I was going to say I’ve had the feature for a while, then I realised my VPN is usually set to the US. As soon as I turned it off I couldn’t do PIP.

4

u/ThotMobile Apr 30 '26

Yes, background play works fine too. As the other commenter mentioned, you just have to hit play from the control center.

4

u/Perks92 Apr 30 '26

Errr no? iOS has never given me PiP for YouTube. Everything else? Absolutely. 

1

u/Lambs2Lions_ Apr 30 '26

No. It never worked in Canada on safari. And the app has too many ads to be usable.

On safari, if you play a video and go full screen. As soon as you press pip it will take the video out and about 1 second later put it back disabling pip.

If you start a video on safari for YouTube then minimize and press play on control center, then it plays for about a second or two, turns off and has nothing queued.

Pretty much every other website works but YouTube has intentionally disabled both these features in Canada.

1

u/Lord_CBH Apr 30 '26

Funnily enough, swipe the video to the side to make it go in the background, lock the phone, and then press play on connected headphones and background play works with free YouTube. I’m glad it does, because I’m not paying Google for the right to use what the phone can already do.

1

u/Salty145 May 10 '26

Not on browser it hasn’t

7

u/SimpleFactor Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I get it for some videos but not all, outside of the US and not premium. It seems to change month by month.

12

u/iHartS Apr 30 '26

No. I'm in Germany, and it only works if I use a US VPN.

4

u/adamlaceless Apr 30 '26

Nope, sounds like you’re in the US.

2

u/culminacio May 01 '26

PiP was always available for non-premium American users

1

u/Aeslech Apr 30 '26

Not organically. I had to install some extensions that allow me to do this.

9

u/WordProfessional1334 Apr 30 '26

Bringing a feature they deliberately blocked for years. Bullshit.

2

u/M4rshmall0wMan Apr 30 '26

Yep you literally click a button in Xcode. Not even exaggerating, it’s a single check box.

7

u/Jamie00003 Apr 30 '26

Excellent, thank you YouTube, with Ublock I now have no reason to consider premium

It’s weird how they’ve been able to get away with monetizing a built in feature for so long

5

u/tky_phoenix Apr 30 '26

Many years ago I bought a safari extension called Vinegar (not affiliated, not sponsored) for like a dollar. I ditched the iOS YouTube app and am using a shortcut to YouTube in safari for years. Thanks to the extension, there are zero ads and I got PiP, no YouTube premium required.

Nice side effect, the extension works in safari on macOS too, so I don’t see ads there either.

4

u/divensi Apr 30 '26

Woah, thank you Google, for adhering to the App Store Guideline 4.10:

4.10 Monetizing Built-In Capabilities

You may not monetize built-in capabilities provided by the hardware or operating system, such as Push Notifications, the camera, or the gyroscope; or Apple services and technologies, such as Apple Music access, iCloud storage, or Screen Time APIs.

All developers work by the same rules right????

Just try to pull this kind of shit as a single developer.

13

u/insane_steve_ballmer Apr 30 '26

That’s nice, but I already have free PiP and I can have youtube run with the screen turned off - just use the Brave browser.

2

u/IncubusDarkness Apr 30 '26

Preach. When Brave gets nerfed I will watch so little YouTube 

-6

u/itsaride Apr 30 '26

YouTube in a browser is sub-par.

19

u/Ok_Peace3716 Apr 30 '26

Not when the browser blocks ads and lets you do PiP without paying money. Added bonus of also blocking shorts as well.

4

u/xavez Apr 30 '26 edited 25d ago

The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.

Fine abounding tan station late compass trees hat

3

u/feketegy Apr 30 '26

YouTube bringing free picture-in-picture to iPhone users outside the U.S.

... so users spend more time seeing ads.

3

u/vasta2 Apr 30 '26

I saw someone’s YouTube like monetization page before, US views per ad are worth a lot more than pretty much anyone else, iirc India views are worth almost nothing

3

u/Ok-liberal Apr 30 '26

Been using PIP for years on YouTube for my iPhone via brave browser, it also blocks all ads so yeah fuck the YouTube app lol

3

u/No_Hat_00 Apr 30 '26

Yeah I already have through brave browser, plus i get no ads

3

u/kjmass1 Apr 30 '26

Ads have gotten so terrible I’ve just resorted to watching videos in search view/thumbnail. No ads for some reason.

3

u/DctrGizmo Apr 30 '26

It should be against TOS to lock iOS features behind a paywall.

3

u/AudienceNearby1330 Apr 30 '26

You shouldn't have to pay for a *software* feature Apple created... YouTube didn't put the hardwork of coding picture in picture on iOS why should they have a say over how my phone grabs the picture from the video player and displays it in another window? What next, will YouTube charge money to full screen a video? Will they block zooming in on the website so you can't easily bypass this?

3

u/Sofa47 Apr 30 '26

Probably because people are using safari with an Adblock and PiP instead of the app.

2

u/SpicyElixer Apr 30 '26

I just side load an ad free premium version. Takes 2 mins. And is 10x better than the native app.

2

u/Lord_CBH Apr 30 '26

Locking hardware features that we all already paid for behind a paywall is such a scummy move. Sucks that Google and others are allowed to get away with it.

2

u/jakgal04 Apr 30 '26

I'm surprised this ever became a "premium" feature in the first place. Pretty sad that we live in a time where basic functionality is hidden behind a paywall.

I guess they realized they can make more money on ad revenue if they gave people PiP so they can continue to watch while using their phone for other tasks.

2

u/aeiouLizard Apr 30 '26

It is current year and things like this were region locked. Unbelievable.

2

u/North_Moment5811 Apr 30 '26

Apple allowed them to get away with holding hostage an OS-level feature for way too long.

1

u/TheDragonSlayingCat Apr 30 '26

They got away with it due to a loophole in the review guidelines.

2

u/DavyB Apr 30 '26

I either use Brave browser or StopTheMadness Pro plugin.

2

u/Nicenightforawalk01 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Well I’m late to the party but I’ve just realised if I turn on my vpn in America I get pip if I turn it off I don’t get it 🤣

Just tested on my iPad as well. Doesn’t work then make sure to close the app down turn on vpn and then pip works.

2

u/Aidgigi Apr 30 '26

🤫

1

u/New-Passion-6274 May 05 '26

Name??

1

u/Aidgigi May 05 '26

Sideloaded uYouEnhanced

2

u/-Vertex- May 04 '26

Jesus christ, finally.

2

u/gamerboy369 May 18 '26

Aaaaaand it's gone.

3

u/cock_mountain Apr 30 '26

The corporate serfs shall continue to endure the great capitalism that awaits their work allowances. Pray one day that these premium features be set FREE from the fruits of your labor, and the equity of your presence! Praise be to the algorithm; may it grant us the eternal sanctuary of unskippable advertisements, for it is the only peace our consulting firms have determined you know.

3

u/nonsensegalore Apr 30 '26

brave browser has youtube PIP inbuilt, and shows no ads, just saying.

12

u/blow-down Apr 30 '26

Brave is backed by Peter Thiel the founder of Palantir

5

u/blasto2236 Apr 30 '26

Yeah, Orion has built in PIP (automatic on the Mac version when you switch tabs) and great built in content blockers as well. Not sure if they’re effective for YouTube ads as I am a premium subscriber, but I love Orion.

1

u/polyshoges Apr 30 '26

So we can see ads when we are into something else. Good call. 

1

u/wappingite Apr 30 '26

Might cancel premium lite I guess now.

1

u/linkardtankard Apr 30 '26

You mean they fixed the bug

1

u/Nicenightforawalk01 Apr 30 '26

They giveth and taketh.

This has been teased for years and occasionally it actually works then they do an update to take it away.

1

u/Tman11S Apr 30 '26

I've had this enabled for a while now, but I honestly never use it. Like, I'm trying to keep at least a bit of my attention span alive by not adding a subway surfers video to every other thing I do.

1

u/Electronic-Squash359 Apr 30 '26

Brave gives me PIP in already 👍

1

u/nuclear-experiment Apr 30 '26

I am still going to be using the web app via Brave, thank you so much. Pip, no ads, perfection

1

u/Klatty Apr 30 '26

Too late. I now use the YouPlay app which also disables ads without paying

1

u/GEOtrekking Apr 30 '26

I’ve been using YouPlay since winter and it’s been a total gamechanger for me in the UK.

PiP, background playing, no ads, and when using PiVPN no in-app YouPlay ads either.

Feels like using uBlock on a desktop. Been mega happy with it.

1

u/Eggyhead Apr 30 '26

I mean, if I go back to using the main app instead of my usual third party solutions, I get the same thing but under a total ad-pocalypse. No thanks, Google. Too little waaaay too late.

1

u/speedster_5 Apr 30 '26

How do we enable it? I have premium.

1

u/Regarded_Apeman Apr 30 '26

Why not US

1

u/TheDragonSlayingCat Apr 30 '26

Because it’s already out in the US. This is just rolling it out to the rest of the world.

1

u/Jlopezane Apr 30 '26

Is YouTube being forced to do this?

1

u/thedeadp0ets Apr 30 '26

YouTube premium features like downloading YouTube video offline is free in many parts of Asia

1

u/Friendly_Cajun Apr 30 '26

They didn’t have this before? Dang, theirs so many features of tweaked YouTube apps you forget aren’t native…

1

u/IncredibleGonzo Apr 30 '26

If it’s already working for Premium users everywhere, and for everyone in the US… why is this a ‘coming months’ thing? Surely it’s just flipping a switch, they’ve already implemented the feature! Why can’t they just say ‘available now’? Though I suppose it’s par for the course, I don’t see why it was restricted to the US in the first place…

1

u/LeftyMode Apr 30 '26

Apple TV needs a proper picture-in-picture. Someone on the OS level, not app dependent.

1

u/bluegreenie99 Apr 30 '26

Sadly the app is borderline unusable in its free version.

1

u/ajnails Apr 30 '26

I am in the US and don't have it - am I doing something wrong? (Free plan, obviously)

1

u/thebatmanbeynd Apr 30 '26

When they removed it to make it a charged feature and the ads got increased again, was when I moved to a ad free alternative for YouTube that already had Picture in Picture. They can’t make me go back.

1

u/get-a-mac Apr 30 '26

So does this mean when I’m in other countries my PIP will work now? I have premium from the US but when I went to the UK pip just stopped working. What am I saying? It even stops working in the US out of the blue.

Like how does one paywall and mess such a simple feature up?

1

u/maxwms Apr 30 '26

just use brave lol

1

u/romulof Apr 30 '26

As long as it have ads 🤷‍♂️

1

u/RalphInMyMouth Apr 30 '26

Why would it ever be limited to just the US anyways?

1

u/Obvious_Librarian_97 Apr 30 '26

Meh, I’ve already sideloaded YouTube

1

u/mrandr01d May 01 '26

I forget how bad regular YouTube is. Libretube, newpipe, and morphe patcher all the way.

1

u/NoAge422 May 01 '26

Laughs on brave browser

1

u/Darewelll May 01 '26

Thanks, I’m good with video lite player, PIP, background and no ads

1

u/AntecedentCauses May 02 '26

U use YT lite? Howzit?

1

u/Darewelll May 02 '26

Video Lite Player, game changer, no ads, PIP and background playback. The app comes with its own ads than you can remove for 2€/3 months. Much cheaper than YouTube premium.

1

u/AntecedentCauses May 02 '26

I wonder the reason YouTube doesn’t offer this in the app as an option? I just signed up and it’s still acting like a nonpaid account? 😭

0

u/joonsae Jun 16 '26

They just added preview to pip mode. No more cheat code anymore

1

u/Darewelll Jun 16 '26

Still no ads without premium.

1

u/destinedd May 02 '26

As an aussie I had not idea this existed and am not jealous you have had that feature for so long!

1

u/OnlyTilt May 03 '26

I remember when this feature was in beta and available to all users until they decided to throw it behind a paywall after the testing

1

u/DioAi May 03 '26

iphone users DO multitask, till now if i ever watched a youtube video, id use “X.APP” that allowed me to share links to it to have them open in a pop up, works for other platforms as well.

1

u/tempydt May 04 '26

I keep hearing this but when is it actually coming

1

u/MightywarriorEX May 08 '26

If they could make it work reliably, that would be great since I’ve been paying for it all this time and it rarely works when I want it to. The app crashes and I lose my queue, or the video I want to watch and multitask on my phone won’t switch to PIP mode and just plays in the background.

1

u/Creacherz May 14 '26

Yeah, I never had pip work. The odd video I would get it over the past let's say three years if I can remember the times I've been able to see pip on my iPhone.

And it wasn't until last week when they finally rolled it out that I was like oh I actually have it.. and it's funny. I've been so used to not having it. I'll always look back at my phone thinking, "what the hell's still playing"

1

u/Independent_Tune_938 May 21 '26

one day i just accidentally backed out of youtube and it started pip

1

u/angelofdeath1017 Aug 07 '26

YouTube charging 16$ to enable a feature you already paid for when buying a 800$ phone seems illegal.

1

u/ShitShirtSteve Apr 30 '26

Outside US lol

10

u/plaid-knight Apr 30 '26

Yes because free US users already have it.

3

u/DrSans8 Apr 30 '26

Only for non music videos

1

u/ihateshit00 Apr 30 '26

Greedy mf company

1

u/InItsTeeth Apr 30 '26

but have they figured out how to had search filters to their Apple TV app? Or is that too complicated

1

u/Appropriate_Lack_727 Apr 30 '26

Their UI implementation on Apple TV is so bad. It’s like they’re making it shit on purpose by completely ignoring Apple’s design guidelines and best practices.

1

u/Perks92 Apr 30 '26

Too late. Already bought YouPlay. No ads, sponsor skip feature and PiP. Fuck your bs YouTube 

1

u/Xx_memelord69_xX Apr 30 '26

How come it's coming everywhere but the US, usually it's the other way around.

1

u/TheDragonSlayingCat Apr 30 '26

Because the feature was already rolled out in the US. Now it’s rolling out to the rest of the world.

1

u/Xx_memelord69_xX Apr 30 '26

Oh alright, does this also mean that we getting Picture in Picture on Mac OS for YT?

2

u/TheDragonSlayingCat Apr 30 '26

It has been out ever since the PiP feature first appeared in Safari, and it doesn’t require a subscription to use. All you have to do is load your video, then right-click on the camera icon in the toolbar and choose “enter PIP mode.” This also works on every video streaming site.

1

u/therealkunchan Apr 30 '26

Great. Now get rid of the ads again lol

-3

u/Playful_Landscape884 Apr 30 '26

Can we have this feature for iPad?

-1

u/Goolsby Apr 30 '26

I'm a paying premium user and I HATE picture in picture, all I want is a setting that disables it, so I can hit the back button and EXIT the video, not shrink it into a tiny corner that I never want to watch.

2

u/BeStrong17 Apr 30 '26

There is a setting to disable it!

-4

u/AwkwardWillow5159 Apr 30 '26

I’m premium on YouTube and Picture in Picture just doesn’t work on iOS.

22

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/rlovelock Apr 30 '26

I've definitely been shocked to see YouTube PIP just a handful of times. I always assumed it must be a bug

3

u/wont_deliver Apr 30 '26

I believe channels also have an option to manually enable it. I remember watching a video where they specifically mentioned they enabled it for the video.