YouTube is expanding picture-in-picture mode to all users on Android today, whether or not they’re paying subscribers to YouTube Premium, as first spotted by XDA Developers and confirmed by Google’s support page.
YouTube picture-in-picture is now available for Android users in the US for free
No YouTube Premium subscription required
No YouTube Premium subscription required
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The feature — which Google started testing for free customers earlier this year in May — lets users on Android O devices watch YouTube videos with Android O’s picture-in-picture mode, without having to pay for a YouTube Premium subscription.
There are a few catches, though, as noted on Google’s support page: first off, picture-in-picture is only available in the US for now, so international users are out of luck. And secondly, picture-in-picture will work for most YouTube videos, but videos that contain music content will only work for paying YouTube Premium members.
To use picture-in-picture, simply tap the home button while watching a video on YouTube on Android — just like you would with any other app that supports the mode. The free picture-in-picture feature should be rolling out for all YouTube users today.
Correction: Picture-in-picture is only available for Android users in the US, not all Android users as this article originally claimed.
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