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YouTube has started to block third-party mobile browsers from using a background playback loophole. Background playback is supposed to be limited to YouTube Premium subscribers through the official iOS or Android app, but many people have been using browsers like Brave, Vivaldi, and Edge to get background playback without a subscription. Not anymore.
“Background playback is a feature intended to be exclusive for YouTube Premium members,” says an unnamed Google spokesperson in a statement to Android Authority. “While some non-Premium users may have previously been able to access this through mobile web browsers in certain scenarios, we have updated the experience to ensure consistency across all our platforms.”
Samsung Internet users started complaining about the block last week, followed by those using Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge. Some Firefox users have managed to switch the browser’s user-agent string to Android VR to keep the background playback loophole alive.