- YouTube is clamping down on a popular background playback hack for mobile browsers
- Free YouTube users have reported that background listening has stopped working for browsers such as Brave and Microsoft Edge
- Google has put out a statement to confirm it has “updated the experience to ensure consistency” across platforms
YouTube is still on its mission to convert free users over to the YouTube Premium plan, but that hasn’t stopped many from taking advantage of workarounds such as ad blockers. Unfortunately, YouTube is now clamping down on a popular mobile browser background playback hack.
For some time, free YouTube users have been using a handy workaround to play YouTube video audio in the background (a paywalled Premium feature) on third-party mobile browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave or Samsung Internet. Users would play a video then minimize the browser to effectively get background playback, a YouTube Premium feature.
Sadly, a growing number of user reports suggest this has stopped working for many – and Google has now issued a statement suggesting the clampdown is official.
You can no longer have YouTube running in the background. from r/youtube
Although some users have reported that this clampdown hasn’t hit them yet, it’s an increasingly common occurrence for a number of free YouTube users. “We are now officially paying for everything that was free a couple of years ago”, says the Reddit user who sparked the online conversation.
Amid the uproar, Google has officially spoken out on its decision to clamp down background viewing on mobile browsers, sharing the following statement with Android Authority:
“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.”
Another blow for free YouTube users
As mentioned, free YouTube users have been able to evade this paywalled YouTube Premium feature for some time, but it’s definitely the end of days for this popular workaround – and to say it’s rubbed people the wrong way is an understatement.
This isn’t the first time that Google has doubled down on making these life hacks even more difficult for free users to access. In the past year, YouTube has also clamped down on ad blockers, forcing many to seek sneaky workarounds.
It all comes down to one thing; Google is trying to convert more free users over to the paid Premium plan. While we are also fans of YouTube Premium, it certainly isn’t without its flaws and not everyone can justify the $13.99 / £12.99 / AU$16.99 monthly cost.
It’s all about striking a balance and, as one Reddit user has highlighted, the company continues to paywall features that have been free for years, as opposed to offering any particularly compelling new features on YouTube Premium.
As YouTube continues to pull stunts like this – it’s also experimenting with locking playback speed into Premium – it will only cause more friction with free users who can’t justify stumping up for YouTube Premium. Luckily, background viewing for desktop web browsers is here to stay, but how long will it be before YouTube decides to paywall this, too?
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
