YouTube is reportedly planning to roll out the popular feature of its video streaming app, Picture-in-Picture (PiP), for non-premium users in more countries.
YouTube To Roll Out The PiP Feature In More Countries For Free
For those unaware, the Picture-in-picture (PiP) mode shrinks a video into a small player so that users can keep watching videos while using other apps on their mobile devices. The PiP window can be dragged to different parts of the screen, allowing playback to continue on top of other apps.
While Google has been offering the PiP feature for free on YouTube in the U.S. since 2022, YouTube users outside the U.S. still require a YouTube Premium membership to access the PiP mode. However, this is finally changing, as some of the free YouTube users in Europe have been able to see the option to access PiP even without a Premium subscription for the past couple of weeks.
Multiple threads on Reddit, which also include videos showing users utilizing the PiP feature, suggest Google is expanding the feature for non-Premium accounts outside the U.S., primarily the Europe region.
YouTube has yet to officially confirm its plans to expand PiP to non-subscribers outside the U.S. Currently; it remains unclear if Google is testing the PiP feature with a limited number of non-Premium European users or if it is a widespread rollout.
However, a recent comment from YouTube’s X account contradicts the reports, stating that PiP outside the U.S. is currently limited to Premium subscriptions. In addition, YouTube’s support page also confirms that users outside of the U.S. will need a YouTube Premium membership to use PiP with any content on YouTube.
While the PiP feature has been available on Android devices for quite some time now, this feature was announced for all YouTube Premium subscribers on iOS and iPadOS worldwide, including India, in 2021. Further, those who do not have a YouTube Premium subscription and are in the United States can still use PiP but cannot watch certain content, like music videos.
To access the PiP mode, you need to activate this feature manually. To do this, go to YouTube, click on the profile icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen, tap on the Settings icon in the top-right corner, click on General, and activate the picture-in-picture option.
We will have to wait and watch to see if Google has indeed started rolling out the PiP feature for free for all users in Europe, and if it has, we can expect it to be rolled out gradually in more countries.
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