YouTube comes with picture-in-picture on iOS in US and makes it free

The YouTube app on iOS is getting picture-in-picture support on the Apple platform. That starts with availability for YouTube Premium subscribers, but should then expand to users of the free variant. The introduction begins in the US.

YouTube PiP on Android

MacRumors reports this based on contact with YouTube. The known time frame is limited: the ‘roll-out’ of picture-in-picture for Premium users has started and the free users will get the feature ‘soon’. YouTube and MacRumors do not otherwise share information about availability outside of the United States.

It is striking that YouTube users without a Premium subscription will also receive the feature. On Android, the picture-in-picture feature has been around since 2019, but it’s behind the Premium paywall. Perhaps this means that the function will eventually become free.

PiP mode allows users to play a YouTube video in a smaller frame while doing other things in other apps. Apple’s iOS has supported picure-in-picture on the iPad since the release of iOS 13 and also on the iPhone since iOS 14. Those versions came out in September of 2019 and September of 2020 respectively.