YouTube has begun to crack down on third-party workarounds for background playback. The company is actively disabling the ability to play audio of a video when your screen is off unless you have a Premium subscription.
For a while now, YouTube users who aren’t actively subscribed to the Premium membership relied on third-party browsers to gain access to background playback. However, according to 9to5Google, browsers like Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi, and Edge have all lost support.
This also includes extensions and ad-blockers. Users have relied on various workarounds in an effort to remove the requirement of YouTube’s $13.99/month subscription. Piunikaweb, a tech site, wrote that there was a “sudden, simultaneous failure across multiple browsers strongly suggests a targeted change by YouTube.”
Now, any attempt to use background playback is squashed. Once the video begins playing, any attempt to close the app as a non-paid user will result in the video stopping in a copuple of seconds. The ‘Now Playing’ card will appear on the lock screen if you’re quick enough but in most cases, YouTube removes the card entirely, forcing users to open their phone and keep the screen active for playback.
On Reddit, one Brave user has claimed that background playback is operational once again.
A YouTube spokesperson did reach out to GSMArena, confirming that background playback workarounds were being removed. “Background playback is a feature intended to be exclusive for YouTube Premium members. 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.”
It feels as though it is the end of an era for non-paying YouTube users. If the goal is to have YouTube videos play in the background on your smartphone, this may be what drives more users to pay for Premium.
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