YouTube Rolling Out Picture-in-Picture Support on iOS for All U.S. Users, Premium Users Globally

YouTube today announced that it has begun rolling out picture-in-picture support for all iOS users in the United States, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to close the YouTube app when watching a video and continue to view the content in a small pop-up window while doing other things on their devices.

Picture-in-picture support has previously available to YouTube premium subscribers in the United States, but now it is available to all U.S. YouTube users. For other countries, a premium subscription is required to access the picture-in-picture feature. Picture-in-picture is available to U.S. non-subscribers for non-music videos, and it will not be available for music unless you have a premium subscription.

Google confirmed last year that picture-in-picture support would be rolling out to both premium and non-paying YouTube users and it has been in testing, but it took some time for the feature to be implemented for all. "We recognize this has been a slow roll out for a highly requested feature," reads the support article on picture-in-picture. YouTube said it wants to "want to thank everyone who shared feedback during experiments and waited patiently for this moment."

To use picture-in-picture in the YouTube app, just select a video to watch and then exit out of YouTube by swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen. The video will transfer to a mini player that can be moved around the display.

The picture-in-picture feature is available to iPhone and ‌iPad‌ devices running iOS and iPadOS 15 and higher, and it will be rolling out over the next several days.