YouTube PIP Feature to More Countries!
YouTube Brings PIP Feature to More Countries!
YouTube is making waves by planning to introduce a beloved feature of its video streaming app, Picture-in-Picture (PiP), to non-premium users in additional countries.
For those not yet familiar, Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode is a nifty tool that shrinks a video into a small player, allowing users to keep watching videos while using other apps on their mobile devices. This means you can multitask seamlessly while enjoying your favorite YouTube content.
While the PiP feature has been available for free on YouTube in the U.S. since 2022, users outside the U.S. have needed a YouTube Premium membership to access this feature. But the tide is turning! Reports suggest that free YouTube users in Europe have started seeing the option to use PiP without needing a Premium subscription over the past few weeks.
Several Reddit threads, accompanied by videos demonstrating users making the most of the PiP feature, indicate that Google is expanding its availability to non-Premium accounts beyond the U.S., primarily targeting the European region.
Official confirmation from YouTube regarding the expansion of PiP to non-subscribers outside the U.S. is still pending. It’s not clear whether Google is conducting a limited test with a select number of non-Premium European users or if it’s a widespread rollout.
However, a recent comment from YouTube’s X account seems to contradict these reports, stating that PiP remains limited to Premium subscriptions outside the U.S. Furthermore, YouTube’s support page confirms that users beyond U.S. borders will need a YouTube Premium membership to enjoy PiP with any content on the platform.
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Although the PiP feature has long been available on Android devices, it was only made accessible to all YouTube Premium subscribers on iOS and iPadOS worldwide, including India, in 2021. Even without a YouTube Premium subscription, users in the United States can still utilize PiP, although there may be restrictions on certain content, such as music videos.
To activate the PiP mode, you’ll need to do a little manual tweaking. Simply head to YouTube, click on your profile icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen, tap on the Settings icon in the top-right corner, select General, and toggle on the picture-in-picture option.
We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled to see if Google is indeed rolling out the PiP feature for free to all users in Europe. If so, we can anticipate a gradual expansion to more countries in the future. Exciting times lie ahead for YouTube enthusiasts!
