YouTube’s website on Thursday re-enabled compatibility with Apple’s iOS 14 picture-in-picture feature for all users, once again allowing users to view minimized content while using a mobile browser. Earlier this month, the PiP feature was restricted to YouTube Premium subscribers.
While the iOS YouTube app does not offer picture-in-picture functionality, the YouTube website had provided a workaround until approximately two weeks ago, when Google restricted the feature to Premium users and to YouTube content embedded in third-party webpages, it was thought that the company had actively updated code on its mobile site to block free access to the iOS 14 feature.
As first noticed by MacRumors, it appears that compatibility has returned.
Only time will tell if the change is permanent, but at the time of this article, both free and Premium users can now view PiP content through Safari.
iOS 14 introduced PiP video viewing on the iPhone, which had previously been only available on the iPad. The feature allows users to shrink down and float video content windows, FaceTime calls, and more, over other apps. The PiP window can also be minimized for audio-only playback.