iOS 14.5 Beta Brings Back YouTube Website’s Picture-in-Picture Support

As spotted by the folks over at MacRumors, the recently released iOS 14.5 beta appears to have brought back picture-in-picture (PiP) support for video content played via YouTube’s website.

The feature is said to be working in Safari, Chrome, Firefox and other third-party browsers. All you need to do is expand the video to play fullscreen and then tap the small picture-in-picture icon on the top-left. You can then minimize the browser and use other apps while continuing to watch the video.

When Apple debuted PiP support with the release of iOS 14 last year, YouTube blocked the ability to watch videos in PiP mode on its website for free users, while only allowing YouTube Premium subscribers to take advantage of the feature.

It’s not clear what has caused YouTube website PiP support to be reinstated in the latest iOS 14.5 beta, but it’s likely that changes in Apple’s system-level code has broken whatever method YouTube implemented on its website to make the feature non-functional.

It is probably just a matter of time before YouTube disables PiP mode on iPhones and iPads once again. Let us know if the feature is working for you as well.

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