YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode for Android and iOS is now reaching all users around the world, including those who are not paying for a premium subscription. Team YouTube says the feature will be rolling out to more and more users’ accounts in the coming months, so it may take some time for it to reach most people’s accounts. But once they have it, they will be able to minimize the YouTube video they are playing and continue watching it even after leaving the app. To activate the feature, they simply have to swipe up or press the home button to close YouTube. The video will play in a mini player that they can rotate on their screen.
The feature first became available to premium subscribers in the US on Android and iOS in 2018 and 2021, respectively, before everyone in the country got access to it. In the feature’s support page, Team YouTube says there will be no change to the experience for people in the US. Everyone else will get access to picture-in-picture for longform, non-music content on Android and iOS. Premium subscribers especially get an added benefit: the ability to use picture-on-picture for both music and non-music content.
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