[realusername]

I've uninstalled the Youtube app because of this, I understand the business case for it but making the video stop when the app isn't focused is making the Youtube app utterly pointless.

The app looks beautiful and obviously they took a lot of effort to build it but this small detail makes it completely unusable unfortunately.

[balls187]

I'm not sure your exact use case, but if you are a Youtube red subscriber, the official IOS app continues to play audio if the app is in the background.

[realusername]

Ah really? I'm on Android and don't have a Youtube account at all. I mean the app should work the same way as desktop, the video does not stop when I switch tabs on my browser...

I understand that they are trying to sell Youtube Red this way but there's probably a better way than sabotaging their own app.

[lathiat]

I think the reality of why they do this is to stop people using YouTube as a free music player, which unfortunately is a very common usage.

It's a shame this restricts other youtube videos too though, such as creators / original content / etc. I'd really also love to use Picture-in-Picture on iOS.

[Cu3PO42]

I can definitely see their reasoning, but like you, I don't like it. There's times where I really just want to listen to something and not need the video without it being music.

As for the Picture-in-Picture, there is a somewhat hacky solution. If you go to the video in Safari and install Pipifier (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pipifier-pip-for-every-web-v...) you can use it to start Picture-in-Picture. I don't use it that often due to the extra steps involved, but it does work.

[swebs]

On Android there is a better YouTube client available called NewPipe. It's FOSS and you can get it on F-Droid. It enables you to play music in the background along with other features.