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YouTube Bringing Free Picture-in-Picture to iPhone Users Outside the U.S.

YouTube's picture-in-picture mode on the iPhone and iPad is expanding to more users worldwide, YouTube said today. Picture-in-picture (PiP) will be rolling out globally, so it will no longer be limited to those in the U.S. and Premium subscribers.

General YouTube Feature Redux
Non-Premium users worldwide will be able to use PiP for longform, non-music content on iOS and Android. This has already been available in the U.S. and to Premium subscribers globally, so there will be no change for those users.

Premium Lite members can still use PiP for longform, non-music content, and Premium members can use PiP for music and non-music content.

Picture-in-picture shrinks a video into a small player that can be used alongside other apps. To use PiP, swipe up to exit the YouTube app, and the video will continue to play in a small window that can be moved anywhere on the display.

The PiP changes are rolling out "in the coming months," according to YouTube.

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Top Rated Comments

3 hours ago at 05:13 pm
Finally. A third party paywalling OS-level features on my device shouldn’t have been a thing in the first place.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
3 hours ago at 05:12 pm
Looks like they finally figured out that picture-in-picture can also be used to serve ads 😂
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane Avatar
2 hours ago at 05:20 pm

Locking a basic feature that's built into the OS behind a paywall is disgusting. Apple should have banned the YT app early on for doing that until they reversed their decision.
Agreed.

This is clearly a case of special treatment for a megacorp with leverage over Apple here.

It's a bummer.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Radeon85 Avatar
3 hours ago at 05:16 pm
Locking a basic feature that's built into the OS behind a paywall is disgusting. Apple should have banned the YT app early on for doing that until they reversed their decision.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2 hours ago at 05:59 pm
I've already deleted the app and switched to browser usage because of the ads and feature locking
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goobot Avatar
2 hours ago at 05:30 pm

Locking a basic feature that's built into the OS behind a paywall is disgusting. Apple should have banned the YT app early on for doing that until they reversed their decision.
Yea apple shouldn't allow a dev to pay wall an os feature.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)