Why Can’t I Use Picture-in-Picture Function on YouTube in iOS 14? How to Use PiP on YouTube?

Last updated: 2020/09/24 at 6:38 AM

By Vineet Maheshwari Add a Comment

iPhone and iPad users are exciting with the feature that iOS 14 has brought – Picture in Picture. This feature allows users to swipe up or minimize the video on the iOS device and it will still be playing on a small screen while you are using other functions of the phone. Users can also do the same while making FaceTime calls. Most of the video streaming iOS apps are offering this feature but users are still not able to use picture in picture function on YouTube even after updating. Many users are complaining that they can’t use picture in picture on YouTube.

Video playback is a major use case for the PiP feature, and YouTube is arguably the busiest destination for online content. But Google seems to want to take advantage of it and allowing this feature only to the YouTube Premium users. While the function can still be used free of charge on the iPad (only via Safari), the iPhone version of the YouTube app limits PiP to YouTube Premium subscribers.

So, if you are eager to try this handy function o iOS 14 then you need to opt for YouTube premium. Just to remind you that earlier when we updated iOS 14 on the day of its release, we were able to use this feature on iPhone’s Safari browser but now Google seems to have closed this gap, as many other similar sites continue to support this feature. So, it looks like Google only wants to provide the feature to premium subscribers and wants to make more money out of it.

In addition to the PiP topic, Apple TV 4K users also wonder why YouTube is only available in 1080p. After all, 4K support was available during the tvOS 14 beta. The company did not give a reason for the lack of the final version of the new Apple TV operating system. However, it confirmed that 4K support will be submitted later.