YouTube testing picture-in-picture with some iPhone users running iOS 14 beta
For the first time, Apple iPhone users will enjoy picture-in-picture (PiP) once iOS 14 is installed. This will allow users to watch videos while multitasking and using other apps. The iPad has had this feature going back to 2015's iOS 9. According to some Twitter users (via 9to5Mac), YouTube is beginning to rollout picture-in-picture to some iOS users via the latter's YouTube app.
Some suggest that the feature only works with a small number of videos. 9to5Mac says that it was able to confirm that the feature is being tested with a small number of iOS users employing the latest version of the YouTube app for iOS. Once you have the feature enabled, you can start playing a video and then closing the app to keep watching it in a smaller window. With picture-in-picture, the window will float above the iOS home screen and above any app being used.
While YouTube can be installed for free from the App Store, video playback in the background is limited to YouTube Premium subscribers. The latter is available in the states for $11.99 per month but if you subscribe using the YouTube app for iOS, the 30% Apple Tax jacks the price up to $15.99 per month.
Apple has added support for Google’s VP9 codec to the latest builds of its operating systems such as iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14. As a result, those latter OS builds can run 4K HDR videos in the YouTube app for the first time.
Apple recently dropped the iOS 14 public beta 6 as it gets closer to the release of the final version of iOS 14. Besides picture-in-picture support, iOS 14 includes Android-style widgets, the App Library, and more. The App Library divides all of your apps up into categories making them easier to find. You can also hide pages of apps so if you use the App Library as your major method of locating and opening apps on your iPhone, you can eliminate other pages full of app icons that you no longer need. Apps can also be searched for by their name.
With App Clips, only that part of an app that is needed at a specific moment is opened and installed on your phone. Later on, you'll be asked whether you want to download the complete version of the app. When introducing this feature at the virtual WWDC earlier this year, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said, "It's all about getting to the part of an app the moment you need it."
Check out how PiP looks on an iPad running the YouTube app on iPadOS below:
Picture in Picture working on iPadOS with the YouTube app.
(But only worked with this live stream, there must be some codec trickery happening behind the scenes for certain playback scenarios). pic.twitter.com/75vG7Ai4ln— Daniel Yount (@dyountmusic) August 27, 2020
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