YouTube is an ideal place for watching videos and regardless of the age factor, most of the people prefer to watch videos related to news, entertainment, music and etc on YouTube rather than on television. But one major drawback of watching videos on YouTube other than annoying ads is that it restricts the users to play videos in the app only. It automatically pauses the video when you exit the app on Android or iOS mobiles.
However, there are few ways to bypass this restriction and play videos in the background and here’s how:
Split Screen Multitasking:
If you own a mobile running Android Oreo then you could use the picture-in-picture mode which allows you to split the screen into halves for multitasking, then you could play the videos on Youtube in the background while checking your emails or anything.
Unfortunately, the feature is limited to only a few smartphones such as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 and LG’s V30 and etc running Android Oreo.
YouTube Red (Not Free):
YouTube Red is a paid version of YouTube where you can play videos in the background i.e even after exiting the app on your smartphone. The added benefits for the subscribers are that you can watch all videos without the annoying ads and even save the videos. The YouTube Red subscription costs $9.99.
However, it isn’t available for all the countries except United States, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Third-party Apps:
Another way to circumvent the playback restriction on YouTube is to use third-party apps that enable the split screen multitasking on mobiles. Free music for YouTube: Stream, New Pipe (download via F-Droid) are few apps that enable to play youtube videos in the background. But downloading a third party app for just playing background music on another app isn’t efficient enough.
Using Chrome Browser:
This method doesn’t require installing an additional app, doesn’t restrict you to own a high-end smartphone and doesn’t even burn a hole in your pocket. This is the easiest and efficient ways of all the method and all you need is a Chrome browser to play Youtube in the background.
- Open Chrome browser on your Android or iOS device and visit www.youtube.com.
- Tap the three-dot menu on the top right and select the “Request desktop site” box.
- Now play a video you want to listen to on YouTube.
- Accept the warning saying YouTube wants to send you notifications (if shown).
- Exit the Chrome app by clicking home button or back button. Now pull down the notification bar to resume playback. iOS users have to access the Control Center to resume playback.
If you know any other methods to play YouTube videos in the background. Share them in the comments below!