YouTube ends experiment enabling Picture-in-Picture mode on iOS app – Times of India

YouTube began experimenting with picture-in-picture (PiP) mode for its iOS app in June 2021. The Google-owned streaming video service has now disabled the PiP mode on iOS, 10 months after the feature’s trial started as YouTube decided against keeping this feature around.
According to a report by 9to5Google, this experimental feature was earlier visible on the YouTube.com/New page which has now been removed. The website mentions that the feature has “been turned off,” as users are unable to enable or disable the feature in the app.
However, some users are still able to access it for the moment despite the feature being disabled. The report suggests that some users who enabled the feature earlier can still experience the PiP mode until it is completely disabled on the app. Premium users who never experimented with the feature will not be able to experience this feature anymore.
It is important to note that all YouTube users were not given the option to use the feature. The PiP feature has only been available for Premium subscribers since it was introduced in 2021.
Meanwhile, users can still enjoy the benefits of this feature on YouTube TV. The PiP mode is only going to disappear for the main YouTube app and not the television-streaming package. This feature was enabled on YouTube TV in March 2022.
Youtube might make this feature available for free, ad-supported users in the US. In the meantime, music content on this feature is excluded as a likely upsell to the company’s dedicated streaming service.