HOW TO PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEOS IN THE BACKGROUND ON IPHONE IN 2020

[ShruteSastry]

One of the most annoying feature that is missing from the iPhone is the option to play YouTube videos in the background. If you run the YouTube app for iOS or iPadOS you can only listen to music if your iPhone is unlocked and the YouTube is used in the foreground. This is not accidental and probably serves the marketing goals of both Apple and YouTube. Thankfully, there’s still a way to listen to YouTube music in the background.

Over the time there have been many workarounds that allowed us to play YouTube videos in the background on iPhone on iPad. One of them required users to play the content via the third party Opera browser. Another trick implied to play YouTube videos via the Safari web browser and bypass the app. This doesn’t work like before, but there’s a fine tune available that still does!

Trick To Play YouTube Videos In The Background On iPhone

1. Open the YouTube app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Browse to the desired music video that you want to play in the background and open it.
3. Tap the ‘Share’ icon available in the top-right corner of the video screen.
4. Select ‘Copy Link’, it should be the first option in Share.
5. Open Safari on the same device.
6. Paste the copied YouTube video link in the address bar of an existing or new tab.
How To: Tap on the new tab icon (bottom-right corner of the screen) -> Tap the ‘+’ icon (bottom-center) -> Long-press the address bar -> Tap on ‘Paste and Go’.

7. Tap on the ‘aA icon’, available in the top-left corner of the address bar.
8. Select ‘Request Desktop Website’.
9. ‘Play’ the video and return to the iOS / iPad OS Home Screen. Music playback stops.
10. Open Control Center, swipe-down from the top-right corner of the screen and hit the ‘Play’ button, available in the Now Playing controls section. YouTube music playback resumes in the background. You can now lock your iPhone’s screen and start your workout.

Fact: You have to return to Safari when the video playback ends. This is why we suggest you to pick a music mix that’s already available or create your own playlist if you want to listen to music without interruption for a longer time.

How To Skip YouTube Ads While Playing Music In The Background

YouTube Ads don’t vanish if you play the videos in the background. If audio suddenly stops, it means that the video reached a commercial. When an ad stars playing the audio stops, but the video progress bar confirms that the video is still playing.
Trick: From your iPhone’s Lock Screen just ‘Pause’ and ‘Play’ the video. Music resumes from the point where the ad started playing and the add will be skipped. Repeat this workaround every time a new ad interrupts the music playback.

Availability

We’ve tested the above workaround on multiple iPhones models running both iOS 13 and the iOS 14 Public Beta. It works on both the current as well as the upcoming iOS generation and on their respective iPadOS versions. Enjoy!

Why Isn’t YouTube Background Playback Supported In iOS?

The current situation is in the best interest of both Apple and YouTube, who seem to prefer to give their users a hard time for listening music for free on the iPhone.
The Cupertino-tech giant aims to attract as many subscribers as possible to its paid Apple Music service. That’s why difficult background YouTube music playback will encourage users to opt for a subscription service. While YouTube also earns more money of the user is actively using the app when listening to videos, because it can deliver ads better and increase the conversion rates.
That’s why you shouldn’t expect the background music playback to become a standard feature of the YouTube app for iOS anytime soon.

Is the YouTube background music playback trick presented above working on your iPhone? Use the comments section and let us know if you enjoy this trick!