YouTube has started blocking a long-used workaround that allowed people to play videos in the background using third-party mobile browsers without a subscription.
Background playback is officially meant only for YouTube Premium users through the official Android and iOS apps, but many users have been accessing it for free through mobile browsers. That option is now being shut down.
According to a statement from an unnamed spokesperson at Google, background playback is intended to be a Premium-only feature. The spokesperson explained that while some non-Premium users were previously able to access background playback through mobile browsers in certain situations, YouTube has now updated the experience to make it consistent across all platforms.
The change first became noticeable when users of Samsung Internet began reporting that background playback no longer worked. Soon after, similar complaints came from people using Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge on mobile devices. For many users, videos now stop playing as soon as they switch apps or lock their screens.
Some users have found temporary ways around the block. A few Firefox users reported that changing the browser’s user-agent string to Android VR allowed background playback to continue. In response to YouTube’s move, Brave has also released an update that attempts to bypass the latest restriction, though it is unclear how long that workaround will last.
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