One of the most irritating things about Android and iOS is that you can’t listen to YouTube videos in the background. As soon as you move away to another screen, the video will stop. However there are some solutions for this.
How to listen to YouTube videos in the background
If you’re based in the U.S., YouTube has created a service called YouTube Red. This allows a user to listen to YouTube videos in the background for a monthly subscription price of $9.99. The video will continue to play when you’re using different apps or when the screen is off.
However, this option is only available if you’re in the U.S., so what else is there?
Pop-up Video Pro App
The Pop-Up Video app doesn’t play videos in the background. Instead, it plays them in small windows which can be moved around. Unfortunately, this app will not play videos when the screen of your device is off.
So is there a way to do this without having to download and install an app or pay a monthly subscription? Yes, there is, and it’s such a simple solution that it’s perplexing why no one has done this previously.
YouTube videos in the background on Android
This is a simple tutorial, but you must read and follow each part for it to work.
- In the YouTube app on your Android handset, choose a video you want to watch.
- Next, in the top right of the video screen, you will see the share icon; tap it and then copy the URL of the video.
- Go to the Play Store and download and install the Firefox browser.
- Once you have installed the browser, open it and paste the URL into it. When the page loads, make sure sure to select Desktop Mode.
- Make sure that auto-play is disabled; if you don’t do this, you could hear audio that you don’t want to hear.
- If you want to, you can now sign in and play your favorite YouTube playlist in the background.
YouTube videos in the background on iPhone
On the iPhone, you don’t have to download and install the Firefox browser. You can use the already-installed Safari browser to watch YouTube videos.
- To do this, make sure you have the YouTube app installed.
- Choose a video, click share, and then copy the video URL.
- Now open the Safari browser and paste in the copied URL.
- You will notice that if you tap on the video in the browser, it will ask you if you want to use the YouTube app. Select cancel and then go to the YouTube website in the browser.
- Paste the video URL in and play the video. You will notice that when you move to another app, the video stops playing.
- To get it to play again, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the control center and tap the play button.
And that’s it; you now know how to make YouTube videos play in the background on both iOS and Android devices.
