YouTube is reportedly testing a picture-in-picture feature for its iOS app that would allow users to watch YouTube videos while using other apps. The feature was already available for iPad users and compatible with iOS 9 onwards, but its functionality was limited to only audio without video playing back upon exiting the YouTube app. When the complete functionality was finally granted to users, it came with the requirement to subscribe to YouTube premium.
Now some social media users are noticing that the mode has started to function with the latest installed version of the YouTube app for iOS, but reportedly, the feature is not working for all videos. This may indicate that the mode is still being tested and YouTube hasn't officially rolled it out on a larger scale.
Picture in Picture working on iPadOS with the YouTube app.
— Daniel Yount (@dyountmusic) August 27, 2020
(But only worked with this live stream, there must be some codec trickery happening behind the scenes for certain playback scenarios). pic.twitter.com/75vG7Ai4ln
The picture-in-picture mode on the YouTube app would allow users to play a video and exit the app to continue watching the video in a smaller window on their screen. The video would also float across the iOS home screen.
It is not, however, known when YouTube will launch the feature for all iOS users.
Moreover, users who have devices running on iOS14, iPad OS 14, and tvOS 14 can now watch 4K HDR videos in the YouTube app as Apple has announced that it will support Google's VP9 codec to their OS starting this year.
