The fast-growing Google owned video sharing and social media platform, YouTube has gained popularity for its valuable video contents ranging from tutorials, TV shows and Music’s out of others. Most people prefer listening to YouTube videos with the phone placed down rather than watching while getting something else done.
In case it’s considered as a music player or you’re streaming a content that doesn’t require watching, you might think about minimizing the YouTube App or turn off the device screen without hindering the streaming process. Is this even possible?
Unfortunately, since the introduction of YouTube premium services, a paid membership that improves users interaction and experience with YouTube, the background play features have been limited to premium users i.e freemium based users access has been stripped off the background play feature, whereby streaming videos in the background or while the screen is off is now possible only on YouTube premium.
The YouTube paid membership YouTube Premium also offers subscribers sorts of exciting features like; The ads free streaming which enables streaming without interruption from videos ads, third-party banner ads and search ads.
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Furthermore, the YouTube download option, which enables watch offline by downloading the video when connected to the internet and still have access to while offline. This includes songs in the YouTube Music app, and auto-downloaded videos in the YouTube Kids app.
However, as a student, you can opt in for the student membership option for as low as $6.99/month with 1 month free trial and enjoy YouTube without interruption backed with addition functions like YouTube Music Premium, modify playback with listening controls, afterparties & live chat, smart device integration, Co-Watch with Google Meet, and special offers with early access to new features.
Thinking if there might be a workaround?
Luckily, there is a little trick you can conjure on your device to keep streaming YouTube in the background or while the screen is off whether you’re running Android operating system or iOS. Mind you, this is not a jailbreak but just a workaround and doesn’t require root or sort of.
This temporary fix to bypass the YouTube app not playing in the background issue doesn’t involve making modifications to the YouTube App as you’ll be making use of a web browser, Chrome browser recommended for Android and Safari for iOS or iPadOS. To get started.
How to Play YouTube in the background on Android and iOS
- Open your device web browser (Safari or Chrome) .
- Visit YouTube webpage at m.youtube.com.
- To avoid automatic redirection to the YouTube App, make sure to visit the version that has m in the URL https://m.youtube.com.
- On Android, tap the vertical ellipsis in the upper right corner of your screen to access the browser menu.
- Click desktop mode to switch the page interface to desktop version.
- On iPhone or iPad, locate the aA icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen or in the upper right corner in case you’re on older iOS and select Request Desktop Website.
- Search and play the video you wish to listen to in the background or with screen off.
- On Android, minimize the web browser. At first the streaming will pause, just swipe down to access the player widget in the notification bar and tap the play button.
- On iOS or iPadOS, while streaming the selected video, minimize the web browser then access the control center by swiping up or down.
- Locate the player widget and tap the play button to continue streaming while doing something else.
With this, you can stream YouTube videos in the background while doing something else on your phone or when the device screen is off. Be aware that this only applies to the current video, in case you played a playlist, you’ll need to reopen YouTube and play the next video manually. As it won’t move to the next video automatically as it does when you’re on the App.
Conclusion
Hope you’ve got your questions answered in this guidepost. In theory, YouTube background play is only available for YouTube premium subscribers, the paid membership while the workaround stated above can only give access to background play temporarily and might be cut off soon.
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In case you have issues with the workaround above and being dependent on YouTube background play, you’ll have to subscribe to YouTube premium version to enjoy other exciting features like ads free and download alongside the background play function. What do you think?
