YouTube is a platform that needs no introduction. We all have been using YouTube for ages and we know what the application is all about. Google’s YouTube offers a long-video format platform to creators from all across the globe to upload their content for others to watch. The app is governed by likes, views, and subscribers, as we all already know and the platform also offers monetary benefits to creators who cross certain milestones on the platform in terms of subscribers. All in all, YouTube is a fully established video platform that is loved and used by people from all over the world.
Having said that, the company has recently announced to introduce Picture-in-Picture (PiP) on iOS devices, a functionality that iPhones users have been waiting for since the very beginning. According to sources, there is another twist in the announcement, YouTube says that only Premium subscribers on the platform will be able to use the new feature and the company will not enable it for all YouTube users.
Anyhow, the United States seems to be an exception to this rule and YouTube will offer complete access to Picture-in-Picture on YouTube’s iOS app for its US users.
Doesn’t seem fair but this is what the company has announced.
For those of you who don’t know, Picture-in-Picture (PiP) is a feature launched year by Apple as a part of its iOS 14 update. Through this feature, iPhone users will be able to multi-task between watching a YouTube video and doing anything else on their iPhones. Picture-in-Picture will minimise the video streaming window, allowing users to, for instance, reply to an urgent WhatsApp text or open Amazon and do some shopping or play games. Users will be able to adjust the size of the mini- Picture-in-Picture view of the video that they are watching while continuing to browse through their device.
Several video streaming platforms have enabled use for Picture-in-Picture on iPhones including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Twitch among several others, and now, YouTube will also enable this for iPhone users but only for YouTube Premium Subscribers, except for iPhone users in the United States.
It is a useful feature and there is no denying that fact but people have been using Picture-in-Picture for YouTube through multiple tips and tricks. While some enabled the functionality through Apple’s Shortcut app, others went on to browse YouTube videos on their iPhones using the desktop website. Both of these tricks did the job fairly well but of course, it was an inconvenience, until now.
