How To Pop Out YouTube Video, Play in Foreground on iPad Using PiP Feature
Tip submitted by Bryan
If you love listening to audiobooks, all those hip songs, or any music that delights your ear, then you will know how freakin’ good YouTube is.
Now consider this: What if you open the YouTube app, play a video, then hit the Home button from your iPad? The video disappears and so does the sound.
You can’t see the video and hear the sound in the background on your iPad, which means: there is no true multitasking available. This is now fixed with iOS 9.
And in this simple tutorial, you will see how to play a YouTube clip in the foreground (while also running other apps in the background) on your iPad using these 3 steps:
Summary: Make sure your iPad is updated to iOS 9 because we are going to use the Picture in Picture (PiP) feature to pop out the YouTube video player.
Eligibility: Only certain iPad models can take advantage of PiP and these iPad models are as follows: iPad Pro, iPad Air, Air 2, mini 2, mini 3, and mini 4.
Step 1 of 2: Delete The YouTube App
First step is to remove the YouTube app from your iPad. We are doing this because whenever you type YouTube.com in the Safari browser – it redirects you to the YouTube app.
To avoid this, we remove the YouTube app, which you can do as follows: tap on the YouTube icon until it starts wiggling, then tap on the “x” mark. Or you can go to the App Store to uninstall the YouTube app.
Step 2 of 2: Use Safari To Open YouTube
Launch the Safari browser and type in YouTube.com in the address bar. This should take you to the optimized version of YouTube.
Next, you have to Request Desktop Site through the browser. You can do this in 2 ways: either by tapping the Reload button or the Share button in Safari.
This switches the optimized mobile YouTube site into the desktop site.
And the desktop version of YouTube supports Picture in Picture (which is what allows you to watch videos and as well as use apps at the same time).
Go to your favourite video, and you will notice the PiP icon at the bottom of the video player (looks like this) – tap on it and the YouTube video pops out.
That’s it – you can now enjoy multitasking while also watching your favorite YouTube videos on your iPad’s screen.