Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Youtube IT

YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers (androidauthority.com) 86

Posted by msmash from the pay-to-minimize dept.
YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback -- the ability to keep a video's audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen -- for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge.

Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio would cut out the moment they left the browser, sometimes after a brief "MediaOngoingActivity" notification flashed before media controls disappeared. A Google spokesperson told Android Authority that the platform "updated the experience to ensure consistency," calling background play a Premium-exclusive feature.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers More

YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers

Comments Filter:
  • NOBODY loves Google ads!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      NOBODY loves Google ads!

      I don't entirely understand what background playback has to do with avoiding ads. If anything, playing in the background without Premium would mean hearing and possibly seeing more ads, because you won't be able to quickly skip them.

      I also don't understand why YouTube thinks paywalling this is a good idea. From my perspective, background playback is basic functionality. If your app stops when I background it, I stop watching at that point, because it means I have something else to do with my phone. And

      • It's all about making people pay for Premium. It clearly isn't about ads, those play. It isn't about volume, or the screen. The device is what provides the background or windowed playback, not YouTube. YouTube has to change a setting from the default to make it not work.

        It's all about making you pay for something they aren't providing. That's a scam.

        • That's not really true. This is accomplished with JavaScript. You can circumvent it with a very simple JS injection. I'm sure extensions will be created specifically for this, but if you already know how to inject JS... Easy peasy to bypass. And has nothing to do with changing a setting from the default... Whatever setting your suggesting and what you would change the default to I completely am lost. That's just not how Android works in this case(afaik).

          I used Revanced or I'd have the injection code snippe
          • I have no idea how to insert javascript into a site I'm looking at on my iPhone. Certainly not on my old iPad, whose version of Safari doesn't even have extensions.

            Anyhow, I looked into it one day. There's a field in the application manifest for whether or not it can play in the background, and as I recall, it defaults to true. I'm not sure how they make it not work in a browser.

      • A critical part of that behavior is that YouTube is largely not a long-form video platform. I don't go to watch an hour-long TV show. I go to watch a short clip of a piece of music to figure out if it is the right one, or a short clip that someone sent me. This means I'm not playing YouTube content for hours on end.

        That's a *you* thing.

        Music is a very prevalent use of YouTube: " Since Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" in 2009, every video that has reached the top of the "most-viewed YouTube videos" list has been a music video. [wikipedia.org]", a use that could probably be expensive to Google (do some labels require some global agreement with Google?) and will typically be a "click on the link to a playlist or a mix, then let it play in the background" exactly as in this news (e.g. they use YouTube as a glorified Spotify competitor). By ma

      • > I don't entirely understand what background playback has to do with avoiding ads.

        It's an intentional attempt to make the experience worse on third party browsers, and the key feature third party browsers have is ad blocking.

        Imagine you want to listen to a playlist of music on YouTube. You now have the choice of either ads between each and every piece of music, or using a third party browser and having to have your device used for nothing else. No sending text messages. No checking your social media. No

  • Properly enshittifying (Score:5, Funny)

    by yanestra ( 526590 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:12PM (#65966760) Journal
    Smell and distribution of the brown stains cannot be overlooked any further.

  • Oh noes! (Score:3)

    by r1348 ( 2567295 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:12PM (#65966762)

    https://revanced.app/ [revanced.app]

  • Only an Insucure Browser Would Allow Detection (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:15PM (#65966770) Homepage
    No private browser would allow the detection of user activity--got that Firefox?

    • Re:Only an Insucure Browser Would Allow Detection (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dusanyu ( 675778 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:23PM (#65966786)
      I was thinking the same thing because i can still do this without issue in brave.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jhoegl ( 638955 )
      I currently am able to listen to Videos while they are tabbed, or behind other browsers, aka "background" in Firefox.

      Dunno what everyone is talking about with it, get rid of Chromium based browsers where Google has all the power over your internet browsing.

    • >"No private browser would allow the detection of user activity--got that Firefox?"

      Not sure what you are talking about. I have no problem with minimizing Firefox while playing YouTube videos anonymously (I don't ever "log into" Google services). Linux, Firefox, UBO.

      • The Android version of Firefox is vastly different.

        • >"The Android version of Firefox is vastly different."

          You are correct, but there was no mention in the posting to which I replied that it was about Android. Of course, I did somehow miss the title of the thread "..... Mobile Browsers". Ooops.

          I do sometimes watch Youtube on my Android tablet, also in Firefox + UBO. Never had problems with that. I just tried it and it worked just fine as a small window with another app running. Same if I choose "miniplayer". Same if I open another tab and browse somew

          • You are correct, but there was no mention in the posting to which I replied that it was about Android.

            Given TFA talks about Samsung Internet (Android only browser) and MOA notifications (mobile only features) it stands to reason we are talking about mobiles.

            Never had problems with that. I just tried it and it worked just fine as a small window with another app running. Same if I choose "miniplayer".

            Google's past actions have always been roled out haphazardly per region, or per software, and been a game of whackamole. That you don't experience something related to Google is not guarantee that someone else doesn't.

          • The article is about "mobile browsers." I understand not reading the summary, but you even skipped the title?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Often I can't play YouTube videos without being logged in. At first it was when I was connected to a VPN (i.e. all the time), but lately even when not connected I get a "you must log in" message. My ISP uses GCNAT so the IP is shared with many other people.

    • Works for me on Firefox for Android. I haven't noticed any issues.

  • Google Must Die (Score:5, Insightful)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:21PM (#65966778)
    If they had said "We're doing this to make more money from advertising" one would merely by pissed off.

    But when they say shit like "The platform updated the experience to ensure consistency" they are showing themselves to be complete and utter cunts.

    Fuck Evil Google

    • Re:Google Must Die (Score:4, Interesting)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:31PM (#65966796)
      They're just lying because they really are doing it for the first reason you pointed out. What they should do is recognize that some of their content works fine as an audio experience and start selling audio only ads to play when delivering content in that way. Even if the audio ads don't make them as much money, the savings from not having to delivery video streams to people who aren't watching the video should make up for it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        They're just lying because they really are doing it for the first reason you pointed out. What they should do is recognize that some of their content works fine as an audio experience and start selling audio only ads to play when delivering content in that way. Even if the audio ads don't make them as much money, the savings from not having to delivery video streams to people who aren't watching the video should make up for it.

        This.

        Also, background does not necessarily mean "screen off". It can also mean "floating window", where you're still seeing the visual ad content and the video content. Yeah, users might then swipe it off where they don't have to see the ad, but either way, they're hearing it. And if YouTube can't figure out how to monetize that, this shows a real lack of imagination.

      • They are lying, but it isn't about ads. This is not about the ads at all. It's entirely about trying to get people to pay them extra for something that is a function of a device they already paid for, not YouTube.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          No, it's likely about ads. Those browers likely have been able to block the YouTube ads consistently. Firefox has been iffy at best - it usually works, but sometimes YouTube ads breaks through. But Edge and such have been really consistent at being able to skip YouTube ads (usually with UBlock). It's really the only reason I use Edge these days.

          • >"Those browers likely have been able to block the YouTube ads consistently. Firefox has been iffy at best - it usually works, but sometimes YouTube ads breaks through."

            I watch hours of YouTube videos under Linux + Firefox + UBO every single day, for many years (including right now while typing this). Not once has an ad "broken through". And I have no problem with minimizing the browser while it is playing. Note- I am not logged into "google services" or anything like that, perhaps that changes things

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            No, it's likely about ads. Those browers likely have been able to block the YouTube ads consistently. Firefox has been iffy at best - it usually works, but sometimes YouTube ads breaks through. But Edge and such have been really consistent at being able to skip YouTube ads (usually with UBlock). It's really the only reason I use Edge these days.

            Lol, what in the ever loving fuck are you talking about? UBlock only runs on Firefox now. Chrome is of course doing anything and everything that YouTube wants, they're owned by the same company. Edge uses Chrome.

            Congratulations, your comment is the dumbest thing I've read all day. And that's really something, considering I also read the politics tab on Fark.

            • Google forced the V3 manifest in Chrome, but Microsoft has not done so with Edge. I am in Edge right now and have UBO (not lite) running, alongside Privacy Badger.
          • That doesn't fit. Background playback doesn't by itself have anything to do with ads or ad blocking. Note that the YouTube app itself, where you can't load an ad blocker, does not allow background playback unless you pay for premium. In browsers where ad blockers don't work, background playback is blocked. On my iPhone, YouTube hasn't played in the background in any way for years. I suspect it stopped working around the time they decided to start charging extra for that built-in feature of my phone, bu

    • Re:Google Must Die (Score:5, Informative)

      by taustin ( 171655 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:35PM (#65966808) Homepage Journal

      They are ensuring consistency. They are insuring it is consistently shitty.

    • Re:Google Must Die (Score:5, Informative)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:48PM (#65966834) Journal
      "they are showing themselves to be complete and utter cunts"
      Heh... We Dutchies had to come up with a word for Enshittification, and it looks like it will be Verkuttificatie, which translates back to "Encuntification". Maybe it's a good word to describe not the products being enshittified, but these companies slowly but consistently turning ever more evil.
      • "With this action, it is clear that Google have been encuntified as badly as HP !"
      • Is it a word that isn't too obscene to use in the media? That was Doctorow's mistake - he came up with a term that can't be used by the press (FCC banned obscenity), so the issue doesn't get discussed.
        • It's on the edge I think, though the media here use their own guidelines; there's no binding rules on what language you can use in print or in broadcasts. The word is not very widely used (yet), but I did hear it first on a public broadcast. Maybe that broadcaster even coined the term.
    • I guess they meant, "Consistent with how we screw iPhone/iPad users out of being able to play videos in the background. The ads play there too; we just want to make people pay us to stop preventing them from using a built-in function of their devices."

      Something that pisses me off to no end.

    • Is it evil, or merely Grade-A Capitalism?

      You create a product in America that is two-tiered, with certain features exclusive to those who pay for Premium features. Then you find that consumers are able to steal from you by sidestepping said features. Which of course in turn deters current Premium members from continuing to pay, so they cancel their membership and choose a sidestepping alternative instead. Which directly impacts your revenue and ability to survive.

      IF YouTube were a small to medium sized f

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by qeveren ( 318805 )
        > Is it evil, or merely Grade-A Capitalism? "It's the same picture."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by piojo ( 995934 )

        Isn't there something faintly disgusting about a company capturing as much value as they can from a service, to the extent that it's barely providing any value to the consumer?

        I'm a big fan of capitalism, but I'm concerned that clever firms are sucking the joy out of life.

        For example, if a ride company figures out the maximum I'd pay for a ride and charges that amount, there's no good for me in that transaction. The company added and took in equal measure.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by piojo ( 995934 )

          To clarify, my comment refers not to the freeloader/customer distinction but to the exorbitant cost of paid YouTube and the fact that they are trying to artificially increase its consumer value by making free YouTube a shittier experience.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's not even ads, the background playback feature is a paid one that you get as part of YouTube Premium.

      YouTube Premium is expensive and shitty. There are still ads on it, and you feel like you are being forced to pay because Google may certain features only work with it. Background playback, playing music/podcasts by voice commands in Android Auto and on your phone, decent video bitrates etc.

      Utter cunts is an accurate description.

  • wait, so they don't do this on chrome? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:22PM (#65966782)

    If I was alphabet I would be extremely careful to make sure I don't prefer my own browser. That is.. unless I wanted the government to break me up.

    • Re:wait, so they don't do this on chrome? (Score:4, Funny)

      by taustin ( 171655 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:38PM (#65966812) Homepage Journal

      Yeah, just like what happened to Microsoft when they were found to be a monopoly because they favored their own browser over any other.

      We're so fortunate that they were broken up into multiple companies!

      • For Microsoft, that would be the wrong way. Instead of making many Microsofts, the govts should go the other way, and make zero!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Himmy32 ( 650060 )

      A judge already ruled on that monopoly position and didn't force them to divest from Chrome. [bbc.com] Why change strategies if there isn't punishment?

      From the article:

      He refused to grant government lawyers their request for a Google breakup that would include a spin-off of Chrome, the world's most popular browser.

    • If I was alphabet I would be extremely careful to make sure I don't prefer my own browser. That is.. unless I wanted the government to break me up.

      They know in that case they'd just have to throw some money Donald's way and the problem would disappear.

    • Thats not what this about. Chrome already pauses playback when you minimize while watching youtube. YT on other browsers are now doing exactly what happens on Chrome.

    • What they are doing is enforcing the same rules to non-Chrome browsers that already applied to Chrome.

      i.e. fixing the flaw in their code that let you do background streaming without a premium subscription by using a non-Chrome browser. They want background streaming to be a "paid subscription only" feature.

  • The smell of desperation (Score:5, Informative)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:34PM (#65966804) Journal

    You can smell the desperation as they fail to keep people from blocking ads. They're just so so so so greedy and grasping that they piss themselves into a frenzy if they think they're losing ad views.

    Remember, if you go to the bathroom during a commercial, you're breaking the implicit contract to watch every ad they show you, or you'll be STEALING from the advertisers. (Some ad exec actually said something to that effect but I can't find the quote.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gawbl ( 941021 )
      From an interview with Jamie Kellner, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, in May 2002:

      In response to a question on why personal video recorders (PVR's) were bad for the industry, Kellner responded: "Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."

      https://www.neowi [neowin.net]

      • That's it, thank you very much!

        Yes, we're *stealing* by skipping commercials. lol

        That right there embodies everything anyone needs to know about advertising- the advertisers think they have a right to our attention.

  • TRANSLATION TIME (Score:3)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @01:36PM (#65966810) Journal

    A Google spokesperson told Android Authority that the platform "updated the experience to ensure consistency,"

    TRANSLATION: "Fuck you, you'll watch our ads or we'll cripple your browser."

  • I find few things on my phone more annoying, than when I close the YouTube app, it keeps playing the video. No, when I close the app, the video needs to go away. Period.

    • Can't you just turn off "background app refresh" (or its Android equivalent) for the YouTube app?

      I disable that for most apps as a matter of course.

    • Really? I've been annoyed for years about that not happening because they block background playback on iThings. I want the video to play in the corner, which works for every other video app/website, but YouTube disables that built-in function.

      And that's what really pisses me off. It's not a function YouTube had to create and support, it's a function of the device itself, and they prevent it from working.

      • I guess your idea of watching a video is different from mine. (And there's nothing wrong with that!) When I watch a video, I'm focused on it, not trying to do something else. When I go do something else, I don't want the video there interrupting me.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by pjt33 ( 739471 )

          Depends on context. There are some videos I watch because I'm interested, and other videos I watch to go to sleep. With the latter it's quite nice to be able to turn the screen off and still listen to the audio.

          • Seems like a waste to use YouTube for audio only. There are plenty of music and podcast apps that focus on sound, and don't stop playing when your screen is off.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by pjt33 ( 739471 )

              I watch a chess player with a calm voice and style, and when I'm starting to fall asleep I sometimes pause the video but sometimes just turn off the screen.

        • This is true! Usually I watch a video normally, but there are times I just want the audio while I'm doing something else. Or maybe I just want a little video in the corner while I'm mainly reading a website.

          But thanks to Google being jerks, when I wanted to both listen to "The Unbelievable Truth" (a BBC radio comedy) on YouTube and have Google maps running, or just to check the weather, I was SoL. I found a workaround for that one, but "The Fall of Civilizations" podcasts weren't something I could dow

  • They have changed the player app so you can no longer scrub through videos that are playing on your feed. If you're watching something and you don't care about the audio it was a handy way to avoid ads.
  • I know if people start buying Premium, they'll just raise the price. HOWEVER, as a massively biased Youtuber for 19 years with 100+ mil views, we make 40-200x more per user that has Premium depending on video length. Those are old stats that they no longer let us view but that's what it was. Also, you take the power away from the advertisers who can boycott and bully Youtube into aligning with their morals and politics. They'll generally do it anyway but still, it did happen twice and we're all sick of it.

  • Firefox Android still works (Score:3)

    by LoneBoco ( 701026 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @03:43PM (#65967114)

    Firefox on Android with the Video Background Play Fix [mozilla.org] extension still works, and probably won't stop working.

  • Got that last week suddenly, Brave browser on Android,
    Checking with ChatGPT, it proposed a few things, the one that worked: load the page in desktop mode.
    I could then switch off my screen and continue listening.

    Then i realised last night that Brave might have done something, or Youtube reversed that function ?
    I no longer need to load the page in desktop mode, i can switch off my screen, continues to play.

    If you wonder why i need this, i listen to stuff while falling asleep.

  • On my iPhone, the YouTube app won't play in the background. It won't play in the background in Safari. It won't play in the background with any browser I have tried. I get a popup about paying for YouTube Premium, which I refuse to do. We're talking about built-in functionality that's blocked on YT's side for no legitimate reason I can see.

    This is how it has been for YEARS! They didn't just do it. Maybe it's a new thing on Android, but they've had their dicks up iPhone users' asses for years. So, I

    • If it does not work in a web browser with an Ad blocker installed, then they can go away.
      I will NEVER have these companies "App" on any of my devices, they can sod off as far as possible when it comes to my privacy.
      They want access to MY computer in MY home...then it's by MY rules. If they do not like it, they are free to block me, I will just do other things.
  • Also a good way to steer clear of the YT algorthm https://invidious.io/ [invidious.io]

  • Do no evil? (Score:3)

    by boxless ( 35756 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @05:11PM (#65967300)

    I know they dropped that motto long ago. I still find it both sad and funny.

    It’s getting harder and harder to remain with their tools.

    I do get value from YouTube to help with home improvement projects and electronics hobby how-tos.

    But the level of crap that comes through. How do these guys take themselves seriously? Ads for get rich schemes, perpetual motion machines (some variant of ‘free energy’ devices), bitcoin, ed drugs, etc. I don’t have particularly salacious browsing habits. So I assume a lot of users in my general demographic are getting similar.

    The guys at google love to think they’re changing the world, or doing some big useful tech projects. Face it, guys: you are just enabling a bunch of seedy con men in their efforts to fleece people. That’s it. You are no better than Craig’s list, or the back pages of various weekly newspapers back in the day. No different at all in terms of the crap you’ve become addicted to, and much worse in terms of your reach.

    • I finally moved off Gmail this year, after two decades of using it exclusively. The stench was becoming too much to bear.

      I remember when they raced to update Google Maps to show that "Gulf of America" bullshit (MapQuest still shows the traditional name, btw). Soon after, I had a Google employee tell me that the company would never provide user data to the government for purposes of social control, or a social credit score. Why? Because it's "against Google's culture". Yeah.

      Employees there do seem to be gett

  • There are plenty of browser extensions for your favorite browser(s) that block or hijack the Javascript API's around backgrounding. Just search "Background Video" and pick one that looks reputable to you. There are also ViolentMonkey or TamperJS scripts.
  • 2026 will be the year tech companies and SaaS services try to aggressively convert what they might think of as "freeloaders/low paying users" into premium paying subscribers: Youtube, Tesla FSD, OpenAI, Nexflix, Disney+, Spotify, Duolingo, Evernote, etc.

  • I use PipePipe on my phone to watch YT videos. If I minimize the app or switch to another one, will the video pause? Will PipePipe even work any longer?

    If it breaks PipePipe, oh well... It'll suck to not watch YT on my phone. I don't much like ANY browser when it comes to videos on my phone, and a Google browser is out of the question. And I never sign in to Google at all, for anything, so a YT app is also out. On my laptop, I only use Ungoogled Chromium when I have no choice. I can't stand it as a daily dr

  • For me it does -- I hope they can keep it going. The popup and background play features are killer.

  • My phone still allows it: Firefox with the "Video Background Play Fix" extension. I hope it holds, because I use it a lot.

  • The usual business model...
    Eff you. Pay me.

Slashdot Top Deals

It was pity stayed his hand. "Pity I don't have any more bullets," thought Frito. -- _Bored_of_the_Rings_, a Harvard Lampoon parody of Tolkein

Close