YouTube Says iOS Picture-in-Picture Coming to All US Users

After a lengthy wait, YouTube for iOS is officially adding picture-in-picture compatibility, allowing all users, non-premium and premium members, to stop the YouTube app and continue viewing their video in a small pop-up window.

Pic by macrumors

In a statement to MacRumors, YouTube states that picture-in-picture is presently rolling out to all premium members on iOS and that a bigger rollout to all US iOS users will take place soon. It's important to note, again, that this feature will be available to all users, despite some concern that YouTube may have limited picture-in-picture support for only paying customers.

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) allows users to watch YouTube videos in a small mini player while simultaneously browsing outside of the YouTube app on their mobile device. We’re starting to roll out PiP for YouTube Premium members on iOS and plan to launch PiP for all US iOS users as well.

YouTube picture-in-picture has been a constant back and forth game, with it sometimes operating via the YouTube website on Safari. Some users have devised innovative hacks leveraging Shortcuts to turn off built-in parameters on the YouTube site that inhibits picture-in-picture. Now, though, with official support going out and shortly to be more ubiquitous, those workarounds will no longer be needed.