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If you know the term picture-in-picture you know first-hand its virtues. And it is that it is a really useful function, regardless of the application, to see content and be able to move through the rest of the terminal (menus and other applications) without taking an eye off it. Something that has been available on YouTube for a long time, but was initially limited exclusively to Premium or paid users. Now it seems that it opens the season to other users.
Until now when you were watching a YouTube video and you pressed back on your Android mobile the video kept playing while you moved around the application looking for new content to watch. This concept was limited if you completely exited the application, to the mobile desktop for example, and wanted to continue watching the video. Then the playback stops and the video bubble was closed with the app. Well, this is what has started to change.
And we say started because, like any service that comes from Google, it usually does it in a stepped and slow manner At the moment the sources talk about several users in Italy who already have this function available to use. Quite a step if we take into account that, to date, only American users had enjoyed the real picture-in-picture of YouTube.Even though the ability to do so has been available since the arrival of Android Oreo, almost two years ago.
The important thing about the news is not only that YouTube opens the ban on this function outside the United States, but also does it outside any payment plan or service Premium as YouTube Red was in its day. In this way, all users, without having to pay money, will be able to start watching YouTube videos while performing other tasks directly on their Android phones.
Something like what already happens in WhatsApp when you receive a link to a YouTube video. We can click to play it and start watching it in the same chat in which we received it, but also go back to the conversations screen and continue with a completely different chat without losing a second of playback
How to activate the Picture-in-picture feature on YouTube
To find out if you are one of the lucky ones to have YouTube's picture-in-picture feature in the first place, all you have to do is update your application to its latest version. Then open it and click on the upper right corner (your Google user photo) to display the menu. Here scroll down to the last section and click on Settings
In the new screen that appears you must move to the section General This is where the picture-in-picture or image-in-image, and from where we can activate or deactivate it. Obviously, if it is active, we will be able to check how, while we play a video, we will have the rest of the terminal accessible without pausing or cutting the video. That is, we can open another application, jump to the desktop of the terminal, check WhatsApp messages, etc. All this while the video continues to be displayed in a bubble above the rest of the content.
Therefore, it will be necessary to close the bubble to stop playing the video in picture-in-picture mode. This way we can stop the sound and video to effectively avoid continuing playback even if we leave YouTube.
Meanwhile, if the Settings menu doesn't show the Picture-in-picture function, you can just wait for YouTube to do it Also available on your Android mobile. A period that is not confirmed. And it is that the function is not even collected yet on the support page. So most likely its arrival will be slow and staggered.
Information via AndroidHeadlines and 9to5Google
