YouTube is rolling out a picture-in-picture mode for YouTube TV on iOS devices running iOS 15 or newer, the company announced Wednesday. YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan promised on The Vergecast that the feature was on the way, and now it’s finally here.
With picture-in-picture, you’ll be able to keep watching YouTube TV when you navigate away from the YouTube TV app. The feature could come in handy if, for example, you’re watching a sports game but want to scroll through Twitter to see reactions to what just happened on the field. It’s a feature that’s been available on Android for years, so it’s good to see that Google has finally brought it over to Apple’s iOS devices.
That said, we’re still waiting for Google to launch picture-in-picture for all users of the standard YouTube app on iOS, no YouTube Premium subscription required. That feature is in testing if you do have a Premium subscription, and YouTube’s Labs page currently says you can try it out until April 8th.
In a statement given to MacRumors in February, Google said that it’s “still planning to launch PiP for all users without a YouTube Premium subscription in the US” but that “We have no other updates to share at this time.” In a statement to The Verge on Wednesday, Google spokesperson Allison Toh said that the company is “still testing picture-in-picture on iOS with Premium members and hope to make it available to all iOS users (Premium and non-Premium) in the US in the coming months.”
Update March 30th, 6:05PM ET: Added comment from Google.