We
definitely didn’t sign up for this!

Picture-in-picture mode is probably the biggest
new feature in the iOS arsenal, which allows users to watch a video in a small
window while multitasking on their iPhones.

This feature is quite useful, especially when you
want to watch a video alongside chatting with your friends or in between your
boring zoom meetings! But sadly, it appears that Youtube has started
capitalizing on the use of this feature, as they have now started blocking
videos in PIP mode, unless, of course, you pay for Youtube Premium. That’s bad,
YouTube!

Don’t believe us? Experiment it by yourself!
Expand a video on Youtube’s website in Safari into a full screen. Upon tapping
to pull up playback controls, you will see a picture-in-picture icon in the
top-left corner of your screen. Press that, and the video opens into its own
window before resuming it to its usual position on YouTube’s site.

And if you tap back to your home screen while
watching a video in full screen, you will notice that it flashes into
picture-in-picture mode for a short while before vanishing.

However, you can still watch YouTube videos in
picture-in-picture mode if they’re fixed on a website. And if you have paid for
the YouTube premium, that makes you their favorite and your picture-in-picture
works smoothly as it should. But free users are no longer able to enjoy this
luxury!

iPad users can still watch videos in PIP mode in
Safari, regardless of whether you’re a freebie or have a premium account.

 If you’ve
trouble understanding the latest iOS software, then this iPadOS 14 User Guide is a must-read to understand all the
tricks and techniques of iOS 14.

Not sure, if it’s an
iOS’s glitch or YouTube has deliberately tried to pull such a stunt. As for
now, YouTube has only provided the luxury of playing videos in the background to
only its premium subscribers. So, it makes sense that they want to limit
picture-in-picture mode to only the users who’ve paid for the premium.