YouTube intentionally blocks background play on third-party mobile browsers to keep Premium perks exclusive — will it ever extend to background tabs in Windows?

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Want background play on your phone? YouTube says it’s exclusive to its $14/month Premium subscription plan.

In this photo illustration, the YouTube Premium logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen.
(Image credit: Getty Images | SOPA)

YouTube is arguably the most popular online video platform of all time. However, Google has made unpopular changes to its mobile platform over the past few years that have seemingly degraded the user experience.

For the longest time, users have relied on third-party mobile browsers, including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge, to play the audio of a YouTube video with the screen off. However, YouTube is now blocking the popular workaround for background playback (via PiunikaWeb).

The change might seem browser-specific, with some even thinking that it might be a bug. However, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Android Authority that the change is intentional and designed to block non-Premium mobile users from accessing background playback:

Background playback is a feature intended to be exclusive for YouTube Premium members. While some non-Premium users may have previously been able to access this through mobile web browsers in certain scenarios, we have updated the experience to ensure consistency across all our platforms.

That said, it now seems you'll either have to bite the bullet and subscribe to YouTube's $14/month plan or say goodbye to the background play feature for good on your smartphones and tablets.

Last week, the software giant ramped up its aggressive campaign against ad blockers on desktop PCs, with multiple Google Chrome and Firefox users reporting they received "This content isn't available, try again later" errors when watching YouTube videos. Concerningly, users reported being unable to load videos until they disabled ad blocker extensions in their browsers or upgraded to YouTube's Premium subscription plan.

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Kevin Okemwa
Kevin Okemwa
Contributor

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.

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