YouTube has reportedly developed its picture-in-picture viewer, PiP, to feature on the iOS platform. The video-blogging platform noted this feature will be available for its premium users while they are testing the response of the in-app image viewer for iOS.
YouTube announcement focused on iOS users in the States — sooner than later, PiP for iPhone users will be exclusive for premium YouTubers’. “We are starting to roll out PiP for YouTube Premium members on iOS, and plan to launch PiP for all US iOS users as well.”
YouTube spokesperson confirmed the development with in-depth details of how PiP is built to function on iOS — watching a video without clicking play: “Picture-in-Picture allows users to watch YouTube videos in a small mini player while simultaneously browsing outside of the YouTube app on their mobile device.”
Meanwhile, PiP appears to be an old development for the iPhone maker — at the time iOS 14 rolled out, Apple included this feature as one of its flagship tools that support other streaming apps including its in-house Apple TV, Twitch, Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
While Apple was initially left out since 2018 Google went on about developing their custom PiP for Apple users. Remember, YouTube has rolled out this feature since 2018 exclusively for its Android users — iOS users dearly anticipated this feature overtime while Android users played ball.
It worth noting that both Apple and Google are both competing for competency in the tech industry, whereby Apple is likely to exhibit a similar business strategy to maintain relevance. Just as Google’s YouTube decided to add Apple’s platform to its list of PiP enabled systems.
Apple users felt relieved to enjoy the enticing view mode’ on Google’s YouTube — notably MacRumors was the first to report this update without revealing the exact timing when the tech company intends to roll out this feature — neither did Google dropped the information.
Meanwhile, iOS users have reportedly accessed YouTube’s PiP indirectly without using the custom video-blogging app. For contrast, Google’s PiP can only display for iOS platforms if users choose to workaround via YouTube mobile website while others prefer shortcuts. Sooner than later, YouTube’s PiP will be available for Apple’s platforms.
PiP serves as a tool that supports multitasking while streaming on YouTube — for instance, you can preview videos while searching for other interests, and read comments at the same time.
PiP on YouTube has been tagged as an overdue tool that is only exclusive for users in the States, while other users around the world can access this feature on a premium YouTube account.