Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

YouTube TV finally adds picture-in-picture for iPhone and iPad

By

After months of promises and and extreme patience from customers, YouTube TV finally has added a picture-in-picture feature (also referred to as PiP) for iPhone and iPad. The company confirmed the rollout this week, and it started appearing in the app a few hours later, apparently triggered by a server-side update.

The feature allows you to continue watching a show in a smaller window while doing something else on your device.

YouTube TV's picture-in-picture feature shown atop a web browser on an iPhone.
Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

To activate PiP mode, you’ll need to be actually watching a video first, and then switch to another app, or swipe up to go to the home screen. The active video will shrink into a corner of your device, and you can then drag it to any other corner you wish.

Recommended Videos

The feature has been long-requested by iOS users — and it was added to the YouTube app in June 2021. But it wasn’t made available for YouTube TV until now. Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, said in February that it was coming, and a month and a half later it’s here.

More on YouTube TV

iPhone & iPad users 🔊

We’re happy to share that picture-in-picture is now rolling out to your iOS 15+ devices. Simply select a video to watch and swipe ⬆️ from the bottom of the screen to return to the device's homepage. The video can scale down and move across your screen.

— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) March 30, 2022

YouTube TV is believed to be the second-largest live TV streaming service in the United States. It last reported “more than 3 million” subscribers in October 2020, but hasn’t given an update since. Hulu With Live TV last reported having 4.1 million paid subscribers, and Sling TV had 2.486 million subscribers at last count.

YouTube TV costs $65 a month and comes with the ability to have a half-dozen second profiles attached to a subscription, each with the ability to “record” as many shows and movies as they want. It’s available on every major streaming platform, including Roku and Amazon Fire TV, which are the two largest platforms in the world. It’s also available on Google TV and Android TV, Apple TV, various smart TV platforms, and in a web browser.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
The one thing stopping me from buying a new iPad
Three 2021 iPads are stacked on a table.

Want an iPad? Apple wants you to be paying attention to the new iPad Pro -- and for good reason. It's the thinnest product Apple has ever created, which is impressive considering it packs in a laptop-level M4 processor, a gorgeous display, and a number of new software tricks. But the announcement concealed something far more important: the dustbinning of the 9th-gen iPad. The last of the "retro" iPad designs, the 9th-gen is now finally retired from the stage, and for me, it means this is my last chance to grab a quick and reasonable upgrade for my 7th-gen iPad.

I figured I could grab the 9th-gen for a decent discount now that it's on the way out -- and to Apple's credit, I absolutely could. But a realization began to sink in as I shopped, and I came away without making that final purchase.

Read more
Arc Search, one of the best iPhone apps right now, just got even better
Arc Search's Call Arc feature.

One of our favorite iPhone browser apps has just introduced an interesting new feature. Arc Search’s new "Call Arc" tool functions similarly to making a phone call on your iPhone 15 Pro or other iPhone. Instead of speaking to someone on the other end of the line, though, you ask Arc to answer your queries. The outcome is fresh and unique, and it actually works really well.

Before its latest software update, Arc Search already offered a voice search feature. The AI-powered Call Arc is different and designed for people on the go who are looking for quick answers to short questions.

Read more
Here are the 7 new emoji coming to your iPhone with iOS 18
2024 emoji.

It's that time of year again! The Unicode Consortium has released a preview of new emoji that will likely be included in a version of iOS 18 later this year or early next year. It will be up to Apple to officially add them to the next iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, and visionOS versions.

The new emoji announced today include ones for a sleepy face, fingerprint, leafless tree, vegetable root, harp, shovel, and splatter. The emoji examples provided by Unicode serve as starting points for Apple designers to create finished designs and are not the final images Apple will use. Google and other platform users will also work with these emoji as a starting point.

Read more