Want to play a YouTube video in the background on your iPhone but don’t want to pay for premium? Here’s a workaround you can use.
Listening to your favorite song on YouTube is a relaxing, enjoyable activity. The only issue is that you can’t go to any other webpage or app while you’re on YouTube unless you pay for premium. Well, it turns out paying for premium isn’t the only way to listen to YouTube in the background on your iPhone.
Let’s go through another easy way to play YouTube videos in the background on iPhone using the PiPiFire app.
About the PiPiFire App
Currently, YouTube Music’s free background play is only available in Canada and playing a YouTube video using picture-in-picture mode on iOS also remains a paid feature.
PiPiFire is a free app you can download from the App Store. It serves as an extension for Safari that allows you to play videos using picture-in-picture mode. By utilizing this feature, you can play YouTube videos in the background or in picture-in-picture mode on your iPhone for free.
Download: PiPiFire (Free)
How to Play YouTube Videos in With PiPiFire
After you download PiPiFire from the App Store, the next step is to activate the app on your iPhone:
- Go to the Settings app and select Safari.
- Scroll down and select Extensions.
- Select PiPiFire.
- Turn on PiPiFire and tap on youtube.com.
- Select Allow.
To start playing YouTube videos in the background, go to the Safari app and head to YouTube.com. The extension doesn’t work for the YouTube app itself, only Safari.
On YouTube, select a video you want to watch. Once the video starts playing, tap it once. You’ll see a colored picture-in-picture icon in the top left. Tap on that icon. This minimizes the video to a mini player at the corner of your iPhone screen.
Swipe the mini player to the side, leaving a small dock at the screen edge. Now, you can open a new Safari tab to surf other webpages and use other apps while YouTube plays seamlessly in the background on your iPhone. Just make sure that you don’t close the YouTube tab in Safari.
When you want to play another video, simply swipe the dock to bring out the mini player. Tap Expand. This will open the YouTube tab in Safari. Here, simply choose another video and repeat the steps above to play the YouTube video in picture-in-picture mode again.
Enjoy Your Favorite Songs in the Background
Until YouTube extends the free background play to users outside Canada, international iPhone users can stick to this workaround for as long as it may last. And if YouTube ever disables this extension, there are other ways to listen to videos in the background anyway.
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