YouTube confirmed today that it has started rolling out support for picture-in-picture (PiP) mode to its iOS app in the U.S. The feature is available initially to premium subscribers, with a wider release for everyone in the country scheduled soon.
The feature offers a nifty option to watch a video in a small pop-up window on top of other tasks you want to do on your device at the same time. It comes in handy for occasions when you want to open your email, for example, and continue watching a video on the app at the same time. You can do so simply by playing a video in the app and then tapping the home button. The video will then shrink into a smaller player.
It has been available for quite sometime now, although it's limited only to certain platforms. For example, the capability was released to YouTube users on Android 8.0 Oreo for free in the U.S. back in 2018 after exclusively launching on YouTube's premium version.
Apple also introduced support for PiP when it announced iOS 14 in June of last year, allowing YouTube's mobile site users to watch a video on Safari on top of other tasks. However, that capability vanished in September 2020 for non-premium YouTube members. It was reinstated a month later on the service's mobile site for those users.
Source: MacRumors
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