Play YouTube audio in the background, without having to keep the app open!

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In this era, where YouTube has essentially replaced your typical TV subscription, it becomes a nuisance when unlike TV, you can’t hear it in the background. This is because Google has implemented YouTube in such a way, that you can’t play stuff while opening any other app apart from YouTube. Just when you thought that there is nothing possibly for a workaround, a member of the editorial staff at the Verge, found a perfect solution!

The most common problem is that with the mobile display on, your phone starts to use a large amount of battery power. Only if YouTube would still be playing in the background with the screen off, it would essentially enable power-hungry smartphones to save battery life. Plus, not everyone wants to view the video all the time.

We all have a tendency to shift our focus towards other things, like switching in between apps. These constant switching would mean, that our audio which we most desperately want to hear would be interrupted.

There indeed is a feature built-in the YouTube app which allows you to do this but there is a huge catch.

For those who badly needed this feature, they have to especially subscribe to a YouTube Red subscription. Otherwise, the YouTube will only be able to play as a foreground app.  But, don’t worry we have got you covered. There is a workaround which will allow you to play YouTube in the background without having to pay extra for the YouTube Red subscription.

The Telegram messaging app based workaround works unfortunately just for the Android. The app is capable of playing YouTube video clips directly and doesn’t even require you to open another app to access YouTube.

Even when you lock the screen completely or just switch to any other windows other than the Telegram app, you will still be able to access and hear YouTube in the background!

Therefore, with this simple hack, the Android users can just message themselves the link of the video they want to hear in the background. This in conjunction with the many 24-hour streaming “radio stations” on YouTube would easily be able to make your day.

If one could find this discovery, this automatically means that there would be other ways to go around this as well. I know, how Google’s prohibition on background YouTube play might seem a little off coming from such a huge Tec-Giant, but every company has its policies, and we can’t do much but either pay for their premium service or try the “hacks”.

There are indeed some smartphones like the LG G4 or the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which allow split-screening. This split-screen is a form of multitasking where you can have both apps being open at the same time. The downside is you won’t be able to have a full of the other view, since half of the space would still be taken up by YouTube. Therefore, since necessity is the mother of all inventions, there would also be someone who has found a good alternative. We just have that many, which works on both Android and iOS devices as well!

If you own an Apple device and is in dire need to app Youtube play in the background, then you have come to the right place. You just have to install a third-party browser such as Dolphin, from the Apple AppStore. Just open up the YouTube video in Dolphin. Now you can even exit the app if you want or lock your screen. Then you just swipe up from the bottom to open up the control center and just use the “resume” button to resume playback.

You can easily do this on the Android as well by adopting a similar measure. Just switch to using desktop mode on Chrome for Android or when you open YouTube as a mobile site, you just use the settings request a desktop site.

Now in this way, the video clip would still be able to start in the browser, and then even if you exit the app, you can resume the playback from the notification shade. As compared to other methods this is the best one for both Android and iPhone, since you can easily “pause/play” by either using the notifications or by using the playback button on the lock screen.

The added benefit which comes with this hack is that you can even open further tabs in Chrome, and continue to use the browser as you wish.

Now if you didn’t understand any of the previous steps, here is a simplified list of them which is easier to implement:

If you happen to own an Android:

  1.   Simply browse to in your Chrome browser.
  2.   By accessing the three-dot menu present on the top right, select the “Request Desktop Site” checkbox.
  3. Search up the video you want to play and press play.
  4. Just in case that the Chrome warns you about YouTube trying to send you notifications, make sure to accept it.
  5. Switch to any other app or close it, and resume playback from the notification menu or on the lock screen

Or if you are an iPhone Person:

  1. Use the Apple App Store to download the Dolphin web browser on your iOS device.
  2. Browse to on the Dolphin Browser
  3.  Just search up and play the video on YouTube you want to listen to.
  4.  Exit the Dolphin Browser App
  5.  Resume playback from accessing the playback button on control center or from the lockscreen.

There is no denying the fact that Google knows that background playback for YouTube is a highly valued feature and therefore it introduced this feature specifically for Youtube Red subscribers. Yes, the workarounds aren’t just restricted to these ones.

There are a plethora of them available on the internet but for which the Google Team has made sure that they no longer work. But still, the best thing is that now you know two tested methods which work on both iOS and Android accordingly!

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