Launch the Miniplayer If you're using the YouTube app, the Miniplayer will automatically pop up at the bottom of the screen if you swipe down while watching a video.
Swipe down to reach the control center, and find the video in your settings. Press play. Turn off your screen, or switch to another app, and YouTube will continue to play.
They are only disabled for videos made for kids. It is done as a part the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) and it is one of the few other features that are turned off for videos dedicated to small children such as videos of nursery rhymes and small stories.
Update YouTube on Your iPhone, iPad, or Android Phone
The YouTube app on your phone may be experiencing an issue, causing the PiP mode not to work. This usually happens if you're using an outdated version of the app. If that's the case, update the app on your phone, and your issue will be fixed.
If your iPhone still doesn't enter Picture-in-Picture mode while quitting the Home screen, try bringing up the PiP page manually. While streaming video, switch the app to full-screen mode. Then, tap the tiny PiP icon in the upper-left corner of the screen, if visible. That should force the video into a PiP pane.
To turn on the feature, go to Settings > General in your YouTube app and turn-on Picture-in-picture. If you don't turn on PiP, you'll still be able to use background play by default (based on your feedback from our experiments)! Premium members with Android devices already have this feature and will continue to.
Dismiss the Miniplayer by clicking the “X” button at the bottom-right of the player.
The picture-in-picture feature is present on both Android and iOS, but it's only available to YouTube Premium subscribers. Nevertheless, you can use a few neat little tricks to watch YouTube in PiP mode on any desktop or mobile device.
PIP mode is only for iPhone running with iOS 16/15 and iPad running with iOS 16/15. So, when iOS 16/15 Picture in Picture not working, ensure that your device is up-to-date to the required iOS version. To check and update the software on iDevice, follow the below steps: Open Settings > Go to General > Software Update.
Launch the YouTube app on Android or iOS smartphone. Choose a video you want to watch and start playing it. Turn off the screen or switch to another app while the video is playing. The video will continue to play in the background, even if you're not actively using the app.
If picture-in-picture does not work on your Android device, open the Settings app, head over to Apps > Apps and notifications > Advanced > Special Access, and allow Picture-in-picture mode for YouTube and Chrome.