14 DAY TRIAL // Let’s be honest about it, YouTube PiP is a feature that should be available to everybody, not just to subscribers. And Google knows this very well, with the company announcing last year that it planned to make the picture-in-picture feature available on iOS for everybody with an iPhone.
In the meantime, however, such capabilities have already been offered as exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers, especially as they’ve been advertised as a benefit to paying for a subscription in the first place.
A few days ago, a Google tweet made everybody believe that YouTube PiP for the iPhone was just around the corner.
“Are you using an iOS smartphone? If so, the Picture-in-Picture feature is still rolling out & will be available in a matter of days across all iOS 15+ devices. Tweet back @ us if needed,” the TeamYouTube account tweeted on April 10.
Google clarifies the confusion
Most people believed this was pretty much the confirmation that Google was getting ready to roll out YouTube PiP to everybody out there, and at some level, this is totally understandable. After all, the search giant hasn’t specifically mentioned the service that’s getting PiP, so it makes sense to assume it’s YouTube.
But in a follow-up tweet, the company explains this isn’t the case. The original message was supposed to be aimed at YouTube TV, with the PiP mode in YouTube to remain exclusive to Premium subscribers.
“What's currently being rolled out is the YouTube TV picture-in-picture for iOS 15+ devices,” the company explained. "If you're referring to the YouTube app, it's only available to Premium members on Android mobile phones.”
So there you go, YouTube PiP on the iPhone isn’t by any means just around the corner, and right now, the easiest way to get access to this feature is to pay for a subscription.