YouTube says picture-in-picture is coming back to all iOS users

iOS 14 Hero Picture In Picture (Image credit: Rene Ritchie)

What you need to know

YouTube says that it's bringing picture-in-picture support back to iPhone and iPad.
The feature will be available to all users, not just YouTube Premium subscribers.

YouTube is bringing picture-in-picture (PiP) back to iPhone and iPad, according to a new report. What's more, the feature will be made available to everyone and not just those who are paying for the YouTube Premium service.

In a statement to MacRumors, YouTube says that PiP is now rolling out to all YouTube Premium subscribers in the United States, while all US users will get it "soon."

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) allows users to watch YouTube videos in a small mini player while simultaneously browsing outside of the YouTube app on their mobile device. We're starting to roll out PiP for YouTube Premium members on iOS and plan to launch PiP for all US iOS users as well.

It isn't yet clear why YouTube seems to only be rolling the feature out to those in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, there's a big wide world out there and a ton of people live in it. Hopefully this is just YouTube temporarily forgetting that fact in terms of its statement rather than an actual policy.

YouTube's PiP support allows users to watch videos even after closing the YouTube app. In recent years it's worked, not worked, and worked but only for some users depending on the day of the week and the way the wind was blowing. Things are now beginning to look more positive than ever – so long as you're in the US, that is.

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Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.