Fantastic news! YouTube is releasing this paid feature for all users

Finally. After years of Americans enjoying one of YouTube’s most practical features while the rest of the world was out of luck, Google has announced the global rollout of the picture-in-picture mode for all users. This feature allows video to continue playing in a small window even after you leave the app. Until now, only paying Premium subscribers in Europe had access to it. That is changing.

What free PiP can do and where the catch is

The principle is simple, and everyone knows it from other apps. You start a video, swipe home – and instead of playback stopping, the video continues in a small floating window that can be moved around the screen or resized. Tapping it returns you to the full app; tapping it a second time pauses the video. A classic feature you might be used to from VLC, Netflix, or even the Twitch app.

The catch lies in content restrictions. Free PiP only works for longer non-music content – meaning classic videos, vlogs, reviews, tutorials, or even sports broadcasts. Music videos and live music concerts remain exclusive to Premium subscribers for PiP. Google obviously doesn’t want to completely dilute one of the main selling points of the Premium plan, but at least this step addresses basic customer frustration.

Premium users without a replacement

It’s worth noting how paying users perceive the situation. The Premium subscription is slightly devalued – one of the features people in Europe started paying for is suddenly becoming partially available for free. The price of the Premium plan will, of course, not decrease, so users are getting fewer exclusive benefits for the same money. The only things that Premium continues to hold as differentiators are PiP for music, ad-free viewing, offline downloads, and YouTube Music. However, for some users, PiP was a crucial reason for subscribing.

If the updated app doesn’t yet offer picture-in-picture, it’s likely because the rollout is gradual, and it might reach you in the Czech Republic in a few weeks or even months. Google explicitly states that the expansion will run “in the coming months.” It’s a good idea to check if you have PiP enabled for YouTube in your Android settings – in some cases, the feature needs to be activated manually via Settings > Apps > YouTube > Picture-in-picture.

Do you use picture-in-picture on YouTube?

Source: Google