Google explores background play for YouTube TV on Android and iOS: Report

Reportedly, Google has been experimenting the background play feature to YouTube TV over the past few weeks, and it may soon become widely available

YouTube offers the background play feature to Premium subscribers, allowing users to continue listening to a video after leaving the app or locking their device. However, this feature did not work on YouTube TV or Google’s live TV service until now. It is expected that the feature will soon be available for the YouTube TV app.

Allison Toh, product communications manager at YouTube, confirmed to The Verge that the video streaming site is experimenting with bringing background playback to YouTube TV for Android and iOS mobile users. This experiment is currently available to a select group of users.

Reports from Reddit indicate that the playback feature is now accessible on Android, according to 9to5Google. Google has been gradually introducing the feature to YouTube TV, and it is reportedly functioning on Android devices, although it is not yet operational on iOS.

The YouTube Help page states: “Play videos on your mobile device while using other apps or when your screen is off. Background play is available on YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids mobile apps (if these apps are available in your location) when you're signed in with your YouTube Premium membership account.”

As stated above, the background playback is currently not available for YouTube TV to everyone. Once available, it is expected to work similar to other YouTube platforms. The feature is slowly rolling out and may become widely available in the upcoming days.

How to customise or turn off background play:

Background play is accessible on YouTube mobile apps when you're logged in with your YouTube Premium account. By default, videos will continuously play in the background.

To customise this feature:

Click on your profile picture and navigate to Settings.

Choose "Background & downloads," and then select "Playback."

Choose your option:

Always on: Videos will continuously play in the background (this is the default setting).

Headphones or external speakers: Videos will play in the background only when your device is connected to headphones, speakers, or an external audio output.

Off: Videos will not play in the background at all.