You're halfway through a recipe video, trying to remember if it was a teaspoon or a tablespoon of cumin, but your grocery list is buried in another app. You swipe up to switch, and suddenly—silence. The video cuts out. It’s arguably one of the most annoying "first-world problems" in the mobile era. Learning how to do picture in picture on youtube shouldn't feel like cracking an enigma code, but between regional restrictions, Premium paywalls, and specific device settings, it’s a bit of a mess. Honestly, most people just give up and keep flipping back and forth.
That little floating window is a game changer. It lets you scroll through Twitter (or X, whatever) while watching a tech review, or keep a tutorial visible while you’re actually doing the work in another app. But Google has been notoriously picky about who gets to use PiP and where they live.
The Premium vs. Non-Premium Reality
Here is the honest truth that most "guides" gloss over: your location matters as much as your wallet. If you are in the United States, you can actually use picture-in-picture for free on the YouTube app, though you'll have to sit through ads. If you’re outside the U.S., you basically have to pay for YouTube Premium to get this feature natively. It’s a frustrating inconsistency.
Google’s official support documentation confirms that PiP is available to "YouTube Premium members on mobile devices, worldwide" and "iPhone/iPad users in the U.S. (running iOS 15 or higher) and Android users in the U.S. who don't have a YouTube Premium membership."
But there is a catch. Even if you're in the U.S. and using the free version, you can't use PiP for "music content." YouTube protects its music licensing fiercely. If you try to minimize a Taylor Swift music video without Premium, it’ll just stop playing. It’s their way of nudging you toward a subscription.
Getting it working on Android
Android users usually have it easier because the operating system is more open, but things still go wrong. First, you've got to ensure the system-level permission is toggled on. You’d be surprised how many people skip this step and wonder why their phone isn't cooperating.
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Go into your phone's main Settings, find Apps, and then look for Special app access. Inside that menu, there is a specific toggle for Picture-in-picture. Find YouTube in that list and make sure it’s allowed. If that’s off, nothing you do inside the YouTube app will matter.
Once that's settled, open the YouTube app itself. Tap your profile picture, go to Settings, then General, and find the Picture-in-picture toggle there. If it’s not showing up, you might need to update your app or check if your account is restricted.
To actually trigger it? Just start a video and swipe up to go home. If everything is configured correctly, the video should shrink into a corner. You can drag it around. You can pinch it to make it bigger. It just works. Usually.
The iOS struggle and the Safari "Workaround"
Apple users spent years begging for this. Now that it’s officially here, it’s still finicky. For iOS 15 and later, the process is similar to Android. You go to Settings > General > Picture in Picture on your iPhone and ensure "Start PiP Automatically" is on.
But what if it still doesn't work? Or what if you're outside the U.S. and don't want to pay $14 a month?
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There’s a legendary workaround using Safari. It’s a bit clunky, but it works.
- Open Safari and go to youtube.com.
- Tap the "Aa" icon in the address bar and select "Request Desktop Website."
- Start your video.
- Enter full-screen mode.
- Swipe up to go to your home screen.
Sometimes the video pauses when you swipe up. Don’t panic. Just pull down your Control Center and hit "Play" on the media widget. It usually forces the PiP window to appear. It's a classic "hack" that has survived multiple iOS updates because, at the end of the day, Safari is just a browser and handles video differently than the dedicated app.
Why your PiP might be broken
If you’ve done everything right and how to do picture in picture on youtube is still a mystery, check these common points of failure.
Background App Refresh. If you have "Low Power Mode" on, your iPhone or Android might be killing the YouTube process the second it hits the background to save battery. Try turning off power saver and see if the window stays open.
Age restrictions. If you’re logged into a "Supervised" account (like a kid's account managed via Google Family Link), PiP is often disabled by default for safety or "digital wellbeing" reasons. There isn't really a way around this without parent permission.
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The "Music" flag. As mentioned, YouTube's algorithm is very good at spotting music. Even if it's a "Lo-fi beats to study to" stream that isn't a traditional music video, the system might flag it as music and disable PiP for free users.
The Desktop Version (Mac and PC)
We talk about phones a lot, but what about your laptop? Doing PiP on a computer is actually the most reliable way to multitask. Most people don't realize that Chrome and Edge have this built-in, but YouTube hides it behind their own right-click menu.
When you right-click a YouTube video, you get a black menu with options like "Loop" and "Copy video URL." Ignore that. Right-click a second time immediately after the first. A second, different menu (the browser's native menu) will appear. There, you’ll see "Picture in picture."
Click it. The video pops out. You can now resize that window to be huge or tiny and it stays on top of every other program you have open—Word, Excel, Discord, whatever.
Actionable Steps to Fix Your PiP Today
If you're staring at a frozen app, do this in order:
- Check your region: If you aren't in the U.S., stop troubleshooting the free version. It won't work. Use the Safari desktop-site trick instead.
- Verify the "Music" factor: Try a random "How to fix a sink" video. If that works in PiP but your favorite song doesn't, you've found the limitation.
- Update everything: Ensure your OS is current. For Android, you need Android 8.0 (Oreo) or higher. For iPhone, you really want iOS 15 or later.
- Toggle the system setting: Go to your phone's "Special App Access" and toggle YouTube off and then back on. This often "wakes up" the permission.
- Clear Cache (Android only): Sometimes the app data gets bloated. Clear the cache in the app settings and restart the phone.
The landscape of mobile video is always shifting. Google changes its mind on features more often than most people change their oil. But for now, these methods remain the most consistent ways to get your screen space back. Just remember that if you're a heavy music listener, the Premium subscription is the only "official" way to keep those tunes floating while you work. Regardless of the hoops you have to jump through, the utility of having that tiny screen in the corner is worth the five minutes of setup.