YouTube picture-in-picture (PiP) mode is broken on iPhone, Android

YouTube is aware of an issue on Android and iPhone where picture-in-picture (PiP) mode does not activate when closing the app.

Some users are “experiencing issues with the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) feature failing to trigger when exiting the YouTube app.” Instead of getting a floating player in the corner to keep watching, YouTube shows nothing and just continues playing audio in the background.

Google says the “vast majority of these reports are coming from iOS users,” but there are some cases from Android devices. We can replicate this issue on the iPhone with version 21.28 of the YouTube app, but not our Pixel.

YouTube first identified this issue on Friday morning (PT) and said “teams are actively investigating the issue.” However, as of Saturday afternoon, there’s no progress. You can follow the YouTube Help thread for updates.

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Thank you for your patience while we work to get this resolved!

Earlier this year, YouTube started rolling out PiP for free users around the world.