PiP is a great feature for those who love watching YouTube videos while multitasking on their phones. Until recently, picture-in-picture was only available on Android. However, iOS users can also watch videos in mini-players outside the YouTube app. In this article, let’s look at five easy ways to enable and use YouTube PiP on the iPhone and iPad.
Enable YouTube PiP on iPhone and iPad
1) Original YouTube PiP
YouTube will soon roll out picture-in-picture for all iPhone and iPad users. Meanwhile, anyone with a YouTube Premium subscription can try this feature on their device.
If you have YouTube Premium, here’s how to test the YouTube PiP on your iPhone or iPad:
- Open your browser and go to youtube.com/new.
- If not already, sign in with your Google Account.
- Scroll down and watch the picture-in-picture on iOS.
- Click on Try It Out.
or
- Open the YouTube app.
- Go to Settings > Try new features.
- Here, scroll down and tap On Try it for picture-in-picture.
Once activated, swipe upwards to go to the home screen while watching youTube videos. The video should shrink into a mini-player on your screen. If you lock your iPhone, the video will stop automatically. However, you can resume it with media controls on the lock screen.
If the PiP feature doesn’t work, try uninstalling and reinstalling the YouTube app. Make sure picture-in-picture is enabled in YouTube settings> General> Picture-in-Picture and iOS settings> General> Picture in Picture.
The facility is available for testing till October 31 for a limited time.
2) In Safari Browser
It’s one of the most common ways to play YouTube videos in picture-in-picture on the iPhone and iPad. Below is how you can use it on your device:
- Open YouTube in the Safari browser.
- Tap AA on the bottom left and select Request desktop site.
- Once the desktop site is loaded, start playing the video and make it full screen.
- Tap on the PiP button at the upper left corner of the display.
It will now start playing videos in mini-players. Now you can shorten the home screen or use another app— the video will continue to play in the PIP window.
3) Using X.app
The second option is to use X.app, in which you can play any YouTube video of your choice in picture-in-picture. It’s completely free and works without any hassle.
- Install X.app from the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.
- Now, open YouTube and play a video.
- Click on share, choose more.
- In the share sheet, choose X: Video> Picture-in-Picture.
- Click picture-in-picture at the bottom to play the video in the floating window.
4) Using the Stadium Browser
- Install the stadium full-screen browser from the App Store.
- As soon as you open the app, you will be asked to tweak the page settings.
- Paste the https://m.youtube.com in the primary URL box.
- Then, Mozilla/5.0 (Android 4.4; Mobile; rv:41.0) Paste Gecko/41.0 Firefox/41.0: into the User-Agent String box.
- Scroll down and make sure that the full-screen video requirement is enabled.
- Click Done in the upper-right corner.
- The browser will now automatically open the YouTube mobile site.
- Play a YouTube video, make it fullscreen. Then, click on the Picture in Picture button.
5) Custom YouTube PiP Shortcuts
With shortcuts on iOS 14, you can create YouTube PiP shortcuts to play videos in a floating window. It’s a long, tedious process that requires creating a custom action in the shortcut app. You can check out the step-by-step guide to creating YouTube PiP shortcuts here.
These were five easy ways to enable and use YouTube PiP picture-in-picture on the iPhone and iPad. I hope that now you will be able to enjoy YouTube videos in the floating window. The official method, which is currently available for testing, is expected to be released by Google in November. Until then, stay tuned.