YouTube Still Testing Picture-in-Picture on iOS With Premium Subscribers [Updated]
YouTube today extended its testing period for the iPhone's picture-in-picture feature by an additional two weeks.
YouTube Premium subscribers now have access to picture-in-picture mode on iOS as an "experimental feature" until February 14, according to YouTube. The feature was originally set to be available until January 31, but the date has been pushed forward several times.
Picture-in-picture mode is available on iPhones running iOS 14 and later, and it allows videos to be watched while using other apps. When watching a video, users can tap the picture-in-picture button with two boxes and an arrow to move the video to a smaller window that floats over the Home Screen or other apps.
In a statement shared with MacRumors in June 2021, a Google spokesperson said YouTube planned to launch picture-in-picture for all iOS users in the United States, but no timeframe was provided for the rollout. We've reached out to Google for an update on the matter and we'll update this story if we receive any new information.
In the meantime, picture-in-picture on iOS remains exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers. Priced at $11.99 per month in the U.S., YouTube Premium features ad-free videos, the ability to download videos, video playback when a device's screen is locked, and more.
Update: In a statement shared with MacRumors today, Google said it is "still planning to launch PiP for all users without a YouTube Premium subscription in the US," but it has no further updates to provide at this time.
We're still planning to launch PiP for all users without a YouTube Premium subscription in the US. We have no other updates to share at this time. In the meantime, we've also extended our experiment of PiP on youtube.com/new for our Premium users on iOS as we continue to test and improve the experience before launch.
(Thanks, IceCool Tech!)
Popular Stories
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Apple today said it removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company's App Review Guidelines related to spam (section 4.3) and copyright (section 5.2), but it did not provide any specific details. iGBA was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut's open-source GBA4iOS app. The emulator rose to the top of the App Store charts following its release this weekend,...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that...
Top Rated Comments
But, somehow in 2022, this is turning into a paid-feature on iOS.
Sounds like we're going backwards