YouTube has long wanted to convince us to pay for the service. We see it in movements such as reserving the use of PiP playback for Premium users or that it is necessary to subscribe to the payment plan to be able to reproduce content in the background. The truth is these limitations only apply to the YouTube appSince from Safari we can listen to YouTube in the background totally free.
Full screen and lock, it’s that easy
Much has been said about the ability to listen to YouTube videos in the background. It is something really comfortable, since a lot of content doesn’t really require watching the video, which allows us to listen to it while we go down the street, for example. Fortunately thanks to Safari we can do it very easily. We do so:
- We open Safari on our iPhone or iPad.
- We go to YouTube and play a video.
- We put the video in full screen.
- We lock the iPhone or iPad.
- We press the Play button on the home screen.
That easy. In some cases, the play button may not appear after locking the iPhone or iPad. If so simply we unlock the iPhone or iPad, we touch play again in the video and we block again.
Those most interested in the subject will remember that this is a trick that has already been discussed in the past. Based on my tests, using iOS 15 and iOS 14 on an iPhone 11 Pro and XS, the key is to put the video in full screen before locking the phone. At the time of writing these lines I have been able to listen to a video of just over 8 minutes with the iPhone screen completely locked, even being able to access the camera while.
Keep in mind that YouTube could well update the behavior of the service to prevent this playback in the background, but today listening to a video with our iPhone locked is as easy as putting it in full screen, locking the iPhone and touching play. No Premium, just play.