Since iOS 9 (iPad)/iOS 14 (iPhone) introduced Picture-in-Picture, many video apps have adopted this feature to allow you to still watch video outside of the playing app. One notable exception is the YouTube app. Since iOS 14, YouTube has implemented its PiP feature on its iOS app, but you would have to sign up for the ad-free YouTube Premium plan to access this feature.
There have been workarounds to enable PiP on iOS. One way you could enable PiP on iPad is to go to YouTube on a web browser, enter the video in full-screen, and select the PiP icon. However, the workaround is not entirely intuitive as you could not skip ads within the PiP frame. You would have to go back to the video page in order to do that.
Most of us tend to use the native streaming apps to watch videos, and YouTube’s major announcement that iOS PiP is coming to all Premium/free-tier users is a win-win, at least for U.S. users. However, worldwide users will still need to pay for YouTube Premium to access this feature.
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