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IOS Youtube Bug The Almighty Buck

Picture-In-Picture Mode On iOS 14 No Longer Working With YouTube's Mobile Website Unless You Pay For Premium (macrumors.com) 63

Posted by BeauHD from the intentional-decisions dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple in iOS 14 added Picture in Picture to the iPhone, a feature designed to let you watch a video in a small screen on your device while you continue to do other things on the phone. The YouTube app doesn't support Picture in Picture, but up until yesterday there was a functional workaround that allowed videos from YouTube.com to be watched in Safari in Picture in Picture mode. As of today, that workaround is gone, and it's not clear if it's a bug or a deliberate removal. Attempting to use Picture in Picture on a video on the mobile YouTube website simply doesn't work. Tapping the Picture in Picture button when in full screen mode pops the video out for a second, but it immediately pops back into the website, so it can't be used as a Picture in Picture window. [...] Picture in Picture appears to work on the mobile YouTube website in Safari for those who are YouTube Premium subscribers, which suggests that the restriction is intentional and not a bug.
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Picture-In-Picture Mode On iOS 14 No Longer Working With YouTube's Mobile Website Unless You Pay For Premium More

Picture-In-Picture Mode On iOS 14 No Longer Working With YouTube's Mobile Website Unless You Pay For Premium

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  • Google/Youtube is a real pain (Score:4, Informative)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Saturday September 19, 2020 @08:08AM (#60521526)

    Sure pay for no Ad's. I can get that. Alphabet is a business and needs to make money, either from you or via Ads. But if they are making money from Ad's they really shouldn't be taking features away from the users. As well as putting a lot of punitive measures in place that punishes the innocent, then force them to prove their innocents, and still not get their punishment back.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 )

      Sure pay for no Ad's. I can get that. Alphabet is a business and needs to make money, either from you or via Ads. But if they are making money from Ad's they really shouldn't be taking features away from the users. As well as putting a lot of punitive measures in place that punishes the innocent, then force them to prove their innocents, and still not get their punishment back.

      It's called Corporate Arrogance. And yeah, it's going to get a lot worse. You know why?

      (20th Century) "If you don't like it, go elsewhere."

      Oh wait, that's right. Thanks to government-sponsored monopolies, there is nowhere else.

      (21st Century) "If you don't like it, Fuck You Very Much and Have a Nice Day."

    • On any platform other than web browsers for PC, the ability to watch or listen to a YouTube video without the YouTube app in the foreground is a feature of Premium. Using the web browser version on the iPhone was a work around to get a Premium feature without paying for it. Whether or not the feature should be Premium or Standard is a whole different matter.

    • Some Javascript craplets donâ(TM)t work in Safari. I guess this is simply another of those. For some websites I have to use Firefox.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Peacock and the BBC as well. Peacock is whining that Rocku is not playing fair, but when your app purposefully breaks the user experience by not functioning expected, how can anyone complain? PIP still plays the ad. The fact is many of us watch a lot of the time in PIP.
    • But we hear all the time that iOS users willingly pay for content and stuff on their phones, and that Android users are cheapskates. As such, there should be no problem monetizing Youtube on iOS this way - iOS users love to pay for stuff!

      • iOS users love to pay for stuff!

        Wrong, moron.

        Do you not realize how ignorant you sound? Of course iOS Users don't "love to pay for stuff", any more that anyone else.

        By and large, they just recognize when Developers' work deserves to be rewarded; unlike the vast majority of Android Users; who seem to think that the world owes them free, well, everything.

        BTW, this is one instance when even iOS Users do not believe a "fee" is warranted. It is simply rent-seeking by YouTube for absolutely no value-added by them.

        Nobody likes that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Sure pay for no Ad's. I can get that. Alphabet is a business and needs to make money, either from you or via Ads. But if they are making money from Ad's they really shouldn't be taking features away from the users. As well as putting a lot of punitive measures in place that punishes the innocent, then force them to prove their innocents, and still not get their punishment back.

      Google is pushing viewers to pay for YouTube. The goal is to generate revenue from YouTube not from ads, but from subscribers. This

  • They need you to watch all those damn ads.

  • Post YouTube (Score:5, Funny)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Saturday September 19, 2020 @08:19AM (#60521542)
    It's just a matter of time until I'll have to go back to my life again post YouTube.

  • "The YouTube app doesn't support Picture in Picture, but up until yesterday there was a functional workaround that allowed videos from YouTube.com to be watched in Safari..."

    Ah, so it's merely a "functional workaround" that's not normally allowed unless you pay for premium service?

    For fucks sake, call it what it is already. A hack. And then stop standing around like a moron wondering why they fixed it.

    Political correctness is not merely stupid. It's turning people into idiots.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

      For fucks sake, call it what it is already. A hack.

      If you call viewing YouTube in a web browser instead of in a custom app a hack, then I hope to God your job responsibilities don't involve a computer - at all.

      • I was about to reply the same thing. Workarounds are now hacks? For crying out loud... I can't imagine what he would call actual hacks from the 1980's.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        This is how dumbed down lusers have become now. We used to laugh when they could find the right menu option - now it would be "whats a menu, is that an app?". They're just mindless bloody chimps prodding the screen for their next hit of soshal meeja.

  • Everyone here's quick to jump on Google's ass about this, but are you sure it's not Apple that's responsible here? Picture in Picture still works fine on my Android device, and with Apple's lack of innovation and new ideas lately, they're bound to be looking at new ways to generate income. That 30% tax on all sales on their platform may be all they have in their war chest soon... Maybe it's time I think about selling my Apple stock.

    • No, this a purposeful limitation Google puts on the Youtube app. You can't minimize Youtube, or switch to another app, and keep playing a video unless you pay for the premium service. Most other streaming apps I've used (Netflix, Pandora, etc...) don't have this limitation in iOS.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bjwest ( 14070 )

        No, this a purposeful limitation Google puts on the Youtube app. You can't minimize Youtube, or switch to another app, and keep playing a video unless you pay for the premium service. Most other streaming apps I've used (Netflix, Pandora, etc...) don't have this limitation in iOS.

        Again, how can you be sure this is Google's doing? Netflix, Pandora, etc may already be paying their iTax, or may not yet be limited by Apple. I'm not saying it's not Google, but I'd like more evidence before laying blame on them.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by JBMcB ( 73720 )

          Again, how can you be sure this is Google's doing? Netflix, Pandora, etc may already be paying their iTax, or may not yet be limited by Apple. I'm not saying it's not Google, but I'd like more evidence before laying blame on them.

          Because the free versions of the streaming apps, when there are free versions, work as well. VLC and the free version of Pandora happily play in the background, I'm pretty sure they aren't eating whatever cost there is for their free application.

          In any case, to enable background audio in Xcode, it involves checking a box:
          https://developer.apple.com/do... [apple.com]

          Nowhere in the developer agreement or documentation does it say there is a cost to enable background audio.

        • Possibility: this "feature" will be coming to your platform-of-choice soon. Stand by..

          Another thought: This is probably what needs to happen if we expect online services to move away from tracking and ad-based revenue models. Someone has to pay the bills. Google/Alphabet/youtube might be floating a trial balloon here with a user base known to spend more money than average on computing and services.
      • Right, but it's the iOS App in particular. Which suggests a bug or other flaw, not a Nefarious Plot to drive everyone to YT Premium.

        • Ad (Score:2)

          by JBMcB ( 73720 )

          Right, but it's the iOS App in particular. Which suggests a bug or other flaw, not a Nefarious Plot to drive everyone to YT Premium.

          Except I get ads from Youtube Premium on the iOS Youtube App saying it will let you play music in the background. From Google's Youtube Premium page:

          Watch millions of videos on YouTube without ads.
          Download videos and playlists on your mobile device to watch offline.
          *** Continue playing videos on your mobile device while using other apps or when your screen is off. ***
          Access all YouTube Original series and movies.

    • Everyone here's quick to jump on Google's ass about this, but are you sure it's not Apple that's responsible here? Picture in Picture still works fine on my Android device, and with Apple's lack of innovation and new ideas lately, they're bound to be looking at new ways to generate income. That 30% tax on all sales on their platform may be all they have in their war chest soon... Maybe it's time I think about selling my Apple stock.

      The fact that you have Apple Stock means even you don't believe your bullshit.

      Why in the FUCK would Google believe they deserve more money depending on how I display their Content?

      If they want to Paywall certain Content, or extract a fee to suppress embedded ads, fine, they have to make a buck like everyone else; but to try to put a fence around a Display option in an OS they didn't put one second's worth of Development effort into is simply a non-value-add money-grab, pure and simple.

  • 12 bucks a month is a lot of money, but since I can listen with screen off and not worry about ads I've bought in at this point.

  • How am I going to play Fortnite while watching lolcats on the side? Why, thanks a buncharoony Apple: no respect for the user, is what that is!

  • With iOS 14, Apple basically screwed up a lot of things that were supposed to be "standard" is the name of a pseudo-privacy protection.

    They generate random MAC addresses when these are meant to be 1) fixed (as in "never changing") 2) no duplicate (how can you guarantee that with random MAC ?)... and that brings lots of headaches to businesses who used the MAC to identify a device (as in granting specific rights)

    They change the way contacts to the internet is done, remove some tracking (be sure that there

    • Granting access rights based on MAC addresses is kind of a bad idea, since they're not very hard to spoof. What's more aggravating about the "random" MAC addresses, at least on Android, is that they're not really "random", it's a fixed alternate MAC per SSID and not (easily) changeable, so anyone who's tracking you by MAC can still do it, just not as efficiently. An option for a properly randomized per-session MAC would be nice.

      Also, gratuitously borking things in the name of either advertising dollars or

    • Google totally fixed nothing. On my iPhone SE 2020 running AdGuard:

      1) Load Safari
      2) Choose "Request Desktop Website"
      3) Load a video fullscreen
      4) Press the Home Button
      5) ???
      6) PROFIT

      In terms of the DMCA: That isn't up to Google. They're the ones copying/distributing copyrighted materials, not me. It is up to me what instructions my computer allows or disallows, within the confines of the operating system and/or web browser I choose to use. Once Google has agreed to send me video files, it's too late

    • Yea, I'm sorry, I don't see how apple randomizing your MAC address a "screw up" on pseudo-privacy.

      1) MAC address were never truly intended to be fixed and never changing. They were intended to be unique. That's why the "address space" is split between the upper bits identifying the manufacture and the lower bits the individual card. It was never truly intended to be "upper bits identify manufacture" and more "hey manufacturer, here is the address space that you are allowed to assign unique values from."

  • I mean there's nothing worse than watching some nasty loud porn, when you boss walks in to the breakroom and instead of clearing off the screen it goes to that stupid ass mini player that never registers the 20 clicks to close it, and now your having to explain to her why the money shot was in a 20 min slow-mo...

  • Does the Pi Hole block ads on Youtube? I'm doing DNS filtering on my wifi but it doesn't have much effect. I wish that group would make their setup more portable instead of a container blob.

  • At the way Apple touts the latest iOS feature as new and shiny when Android has had it for years. My cheap Samsung tablet from 2017 can do PiP and it can do *proper* windowing to boot , not just tiles. Apple is fast becoming like Microsoft used to be - touting improvements to their own OS that have been available elsewhere for years as some amazing user experience upgrade never seen before.

  • Shocking... (Score:3)

    by JediJorgie ( 700217 ) on Saturday September 19, 2020 @11:15AM (#60521828)

    It is almost as if they have a service for sale and they want people to pay for it. Say it isn't so!

    • Exactly Youtube is a company not a charity.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Phylter ( 816181 )

      Yes, but they disabled a feature of a browser they didn't provide not a feature they created and provided. Their own YouTube app doesn't even support the feature. It was more work for them to disable it than to allow customers to use it.

  • apple user have been conditioned for years to play more for less. They seem to be proud of it.
  • if they promised that in return there would be no ass-raping data harvesting for the account, including across their ad and partner networks, governments etc. That could, ironically, be a marketing plus.
  • Honestly, I hated that feature. It got in my way far more often than it was helpful... never did figure out how to turn it off.
  • Anyone tried desktop mode? I'm assuming safari has one. If picture in picture works on desktop, that should workaround youtube breaking the workaround, I'd think.

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