Do you want to play videos on your mobile phone in the background without charging YouTube Premium subscription fees? Okay, the official Android and iOS YouTube apps do not allow that, but there’s a fast workaround to get that done.
Playing videos in the background is helpful if the video part is not essential — if you are listening to music or ASMR, for example. Even you don’t always want to pause a video, particularly a live stream, simply because you’re opening another app like WhatsApp to respond quickly to a few texts. This guide will be helpful in all those cases.
We’ve seen YouTube advertise the YouTube Premium service extensively over the past few months and the advantages it has over the ad-supported version. Today, one of the most prominent features of this paid membership is playing background YouTube videos.
Who doesn’t want to listen to music or respond to the guidance in the background from a tutorial, all while doing some other job on their mobile phone? You can play YouTube videos in the background for free by following a few simple steps.
How to play YouTube videos in the background on Android
By following this guide, you’ll be able to play YouTube videos in the background free of charge, and this works on both Android and iOS, just in case you’re wondering. Here’s how to do it.
- Open YouTube on Google Chrome.
- Click the vertical three-dots icon on the top-right after the page is loaded and select the Desktop site.
- Now search for your favorite video and play.
- On the next page, the video will start playing automatically.
- Now exit the home screen, but you will find that the video will stop playing in the background.
- Slide down the shade notification, and you will see the media controls of the video you’ve just played.
- Now tap on the Play, and your video will continue playing in the background.
How to play YouTube videos in the background on iOS
- Open YouTube on Safari.
- Tap the top-left aA button in the address bar, and then Request for Desktop Website.
- Now search for your favorite video and play.
- Just exit to the home screen as the video starts playing.
- Control Centre by swiping up from the bottom of the screen on iPhones without Face ID or swiping down from the top-right on iPhones with Face ID
- On the top right, see the music control box. Now, tap Play to resume playing the video in the background.
Check out: YouTube upgrades the mobile app to the improved TV experience.