YouTube has been slower than most to test its picture-in-picture support for iOS; however, according to a tweet, it will be coming to the service in a “matter of days.”
Just yesterday, a user posted to Twitter they were having problems accessing the experimental feature. YouTube’s Twitter response indicates that it is now coming to its regular YouTube service and soon, all subscribers (premium and non-premium) will finally be able to access the feature after multiple tests.
First announced in June 2021, the beta period was set to end for Premium users on October 31. It was then extended, according to the YouTube experiments website, until April 8.
On March 30, 2022, YouTube TV tweeted that “picture-in-picture is now rolling out to your iOS 15+ devices.” A YouTube spokesperson told TechCrunch that the feature will be available to iOS users in the “coming months.” Now, it appears that it will arrive on iPhones and iPads within days.
The availability of YouTube picture-in-picture has been wishy-washy, with the feature sometimes working via the YouTube website on Safari. Some users have even resorted to Shortcuts in order to turn off built-in parameters on the site that disables PiP. Now, official support is almost within reach, so workarounds will no longer be necessary.
YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan reported a couple of months ago that there will be “new products and tools…rolling out in 2022.” And it seems with this picture-in-picture feature, along with many other updates, the company has been sticking to its word.
Also announced a few days ago, YouTube is adding filtering options so viewers can more easily find the content they’re looking for. This includes filtering and sorting options within a YouTube channel’s video tab, so subscribers can sort by content type: Video, VOD, Shorts and Live. This launch will be live on iOS and Android.
