YouTube removes Picture in Picture support from their website on iOS

[Drazil100]

 

Summary

YouTube removes Picture in Picture support from their website for iOS 14 devices. Up until today (september 18th) Picture in Picture worked just fine.
(Picture in Picture still works if you request the desktop version of the site)

 

Quotes

From macrumors article:

Quote

We tested Picture in Picture with YouTube just yesterday for a Picture in Picture tutorial video and as you can see below, it was working fine. Since then there have been no updates to iOS or Safari, so it's not clear what's going on.

From google support page:

Quote

Picture-in-picture is only available to:

• YouTube Premium members on Android mobile devices, worldwide.
• Android users in the United States running Android Oreo or greater, with ad supported PiP playback.

My thoughts

It is unclear to me if they just want some sort of control over who use the feature but intend to give it out for free to users in the United States or if they will charge iOS users for the feature. If it is the latter then I am pretty upset by this move. I get the idea of "support the platform" but they didn't spend development time to add this feature they spent development time to remove it. Either way I am pretty sure it was intentionally removed and isn't just a bug.

 

Sources

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/18/picture-in-picture-ios-14-youtube-safari/

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7552722?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en#:~:text=Picture-in-picture is only,with ad supported PiP playback.

[SansVarnic]

Being that Google (alphabet) owns YT and Android I am not surprised by this move, it prioritizes (or proprietary) Android users and possibly down the road Pixel owners. I am not spinning up a conspiracy here but honestly this move is not new. Google also did this to Windows Phones users by both removing the YT App (disabling any already downloaded versions) and decreasing stream allowances on Windows devices using Edge. 

Wanna use Google anything ... best buy it from Google. They are slowly locking down their ecosystem, that and/or pay the premium for access.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Being that Google (alphabet) owns YT and Android I am not surprised by this move, it prioritizes (or proprietary) Android users and possibly down the road Pixel owners. I am not spinning up a conspiracy here but honestly this move is not new. Google also did this to Windows Phones users by both removing the YT App (disabling any already downloaded versions) and decreasing stream allowances on Windows devices using Edge. 

Wanna use Google anything ... best buy it from Google. They are slowly locking down their ecosystem.

And yet people make a huge fuss when Microsoft is pushing for Edge on Windows devices.  It's not like Microsoft is going out of their way and actively breaking or gimping other web-browsers. 

[SansVarnic]

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

And yet people make a huge fuss when Microsoft is pushing for Edge on Windows devices.  It's not like Microsoft is going out of their way and actively breaking or gimping other web-browsers. 

Remember Microsoft used to be the "Big Corp Bully" and Google used to be the "Little Guy" but this is not longer the case and there are those [many] that refuse to accept that Google is its own monstrosity now.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

5 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Remember Microsoft used to be the "Big Corp Bully" and Google used to be the "Little Guy" but this is not longer the case and there are those [many] that refuse to accept that Google is its own monstrosity now.

 

[Drazil100]

33 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

I am not spinning up a conspiracy

Same. I actually removed some of what I wrote in the My Thoughts section before I made the initial post cause I didn't want to come across as too conspiratorial.

It could be that they want to charge iOS users for not buying a google device. It could be that they just want more control over what regions get the feature without paying. Another thing is maybe they can't serve as many ads as they want to if people use PiP from the browser.

Either way most iOS users weren't on the beta like I was so most of them would still be waiting for google to add the feature to the app not realizing that they had the feature in the browser and just lost it.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

6 minutes ago, Drazil100 said:

Same. I actually removed some of what I wrote in the My Thoughts section before I made the initial post.

It could be that they want to charge iOS users for not buying a google device. It could be that they just want more control over what regions get the feature without paying. Another thing is maybe they can't serve as many ads as they want to if people use PiP from the browser.

Either way most iOS users weren't on the beta like I was so most of them would still be waiting for google to add the feature to the app not realizing that they had the feature in the browser and just lost it.

So it's not even available for iOS users who have a YouTube Premium subscription? 

[Drazil100]

8 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

So it's not even available for iOS users who have a YouTube Premium subscription? 

I don't have YouTube premium so I wouldn't know if either the app or the browser supports it. If someone has YouTube premium and can check I would really like to know if it only breaks in the browser if you don't have premium.

I wouldn't be surprised if PiP from the app doesn't work for premium users either right now as google would have to add support for the feature in the app (if they haven't already). Again I don't have YouTube premium so I don't know for certain the app doesn't have it just that I haven't seen an option. I didn't even know till today that android users outside the us apparently don't get PiP without paying for premium (if google's support page is to be believed). (I also don't use android so I don't know that either xD)

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

7 minutes ago, Drazil100 said:

I didn't even know till today that android users outside the us apparently don't get PiP without paying for premium (if google's support page is to be believed). (I also don't use android so I don't know that either xD)

Well I just tried on my Galaxy Tab and I seem to be able to do PiP. The Samsung launcher allowed me to open YouTube in Pop-up view from the Multitasking menu so not sure if this is just a Samsung thing. 

[Drazil100]

Google support could be out of date. I hardly ever trust google support documentation tbh. I mainly referenced them as a hint of what google's intentions could be.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, Drazil100 said:

Google support could be out of date. I hardly ever trust google support documentation tbh. I mainly referenced them as a hint of what google's intentions could be.

I'm assuming the PiP referred in the Google Documentation would  be accessed natively from within the YouTube app. But then knowing Google they would fought tough and nail to make sure Pop-view would be blocked from various launchers for the YouTube app. 

[SansVarnic]

1 hour ago, Drazil100 said:

Another thing is maybe they can't serve as many ads as they want to if people use PiP from the browser.

This is another reason.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 hour ago, SansVarnic said:

They are slowly locking down their ecosystem, that and/or pay the premium for access.

As long as they dont remove side loading, i dont care.

 

[SansVarnic]

6 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

As long as they dont remove side loading, i dont care.

 

5 years later . . . @HelpfulTechWizard Dammit!

 

 

/s 

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Drazil100 said:

Android users in the United States running Android Oreo or greater, with ad supported PiP playback.

that's pretty scummy that it only works in the US... I know it's obviously an us based company, but still...

 

 

[Zodiark1593]

Picture in Picture seems to work when I ran the YouTube website in Desktop Mode. 

[ApexMeteor]

Youtube is aslo removing the Watch on TV feature, which allows non-chromium browsers to "cast" a video to a TV without needing chromecast. I guess it wasn't a very popular feature but it is another way Google is forcing chrome on users

[LAwLz]

12 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

 Google also did this to Windows Phones users by both removing the YT App (disabling any already downloaded versions) 

Yes, because the app Microsoft made blocked ads and allowed for videos to be downloaded, which broke the ToS. 

 

12 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

and decreasing stream allowances on Windows devices using Edge. 

What does that even mean? 

[Drazil100]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Picture in Picture seems to work when I ran the YouTube website in Desktop Mode. 

But what I wonder is for how long? Ever since reading the article and learning that desktop mode works I have been just doing that but I don’t suspect they will leave desktop mode unpatched forever. 

[pm128]

Google has been making a lot of stupid decisions

[Zodiark1593]

8 hours ago, Drazil100 said:

But what I wonder is for how long? Ever since reading the article and learning that desktop mode works I have been just doing that but I don’t suspect they will leave desktop mode unpatched forever. 

Kind of looks like Apple loads the video into its own internal player, so I’d wager it could be patched. 
 

The proper way for Apple to have implemented PiP is to force all web tabs and apps to be able to be resized to a smaller size and ran, removing the need for devs to implement the functionality, and removing the ability to prevent it. 
 

At the very least, Apple needs to allow Safari tabs to be opened in a smaller window and ran even in the background rather than loading video into their internal player. Should be relatively minimal work to do this, and pretty much gives Google Premium the middle finger. 
 

Still, Picture in Picture is a pretty big win for video chats as it means I can still do what I’m doing while someone is on FaceTime. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, pm128 said:

Google has been making a lot of stupid decisions

Picture in Picture mode means you can use YouTube while in another app or desktop, which would be a premium m-only feature, like using it without your screen on, so this makes sense.

 

Now if they would fix the 2 ads popping up every 1 and a half minutes that would be great!

[Zodiark1593]

4 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Picture in Picture mode means you can use YouTube while in another app or desktop, which would be a premium m-only feature, like using it without your screen on, so this makes sense.

 

Now if they would fix the 2 ads popping up every 1 and a half minutes that would be great!

Honestly, I think it’s utterly asinine of Google to remove features in such manner. Hoping for a future iOS update to smack this down. 

 

The ads are also pretty hellish when I just want to listen to something (like I dunno, the Wan Show perhaps) during my drive, and I can’t skip the damn ads because of said driving. Pretty frustrating experience at times. 

[Drazil100]

8 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Picture in Picture mode means you can use YouTube while in another app or desktop, which would be a premium m-only feature, like using it without your screen on, so this makes sense.

I am not a fan of them making that a paid feature especially considering the development effort we would have been paying them for is to make the feature not work when it was working to begin with. 

 

8 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Now if they would fix the 2 ads popping up every 1 and a half minutes that would be great!

You are right. Google probably intended it to be 3 ads every 45 seconds. They will probably fix that sometime soon. 

[Drazil100]

15 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

The ads are also pretty hellish when I just want to listen to something (like I dunno, the Wan Show perhaps) during my drive, and I can’t skip the damn ads because of said driving. Pretty frustrating experience at times. 

That’s why I watch the twitch version always. A) you get a little intro chatter while they test the stream before going live on YouTube. And B) you get the option for background play or audio only. 
 

Also twitch version usually only has intro ads. Idk about YouTube streams.