This Android App Lets Me Use YouTube’s Best Premium Feature for Free

Watching YouTube videos in picture-in-picture (PiP) mode typically requires a premium membership. However, there’s a clever trick I’ve been using for a while now that allows me to bypass this restriction, and it works on any Android phone.

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How to Watch YouTube in Picture-in-Picture Mode Without Premium

If you’re in the United States, Google allows you to use PiP mode even if you don’t have a YouTube Premium membership. However, certain content, such as music videos, is restricted and still requires a subscription. Those outside the US need a premium membership to watch any content on YouTube in PiP mode.

Sure, there are plenty of reasons to stay subscribed to YouTube Premium, but getting PIP access shouldn’t be one of them.

Thankfully, with this trick, you can watch YouTube in PiP mode regardless of where you are and which Android phone you use. We’ll be using the Samsung Internet mobile browser to execute this trick. You can get it on the Play Store.

Why I’ll Never Ditch Samsung Internet for Google Chrome

Chrome might be popular, but Samsung Internet works better on mobile.

Unfortunately, Samsung Internet is not available to download on the Apple App Store, so if you own an iPhone, you won’t be able to use this trick.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, follow these steps:

Open Samsung Internet and tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the toolbar. From the grid of toolbar buttons, find and tap Settings.
In the Settings menu, go to Useful features > Video assistant and enable the toggle.
Go back, open a new tab, head to YouTube, and find and select your desired video.
As the video plays, you’ll see a floating button. Tap it to switch to Samsung’s video player and go full screen.
While in full-screen mode, go to your home screen by tapping the Home button (or swiping up if you use gesture navigation). Doing this will force the browser to open the video in a pop-up player even if the website doesn’t support it.

The pop-up player has controls to play/pause, skip forward or back, and go full screen again. On Galaxy phones, you can also resize the player by pinching in or out, but the same might not be possible on your particular Android model.

Other browsers might also support similar functionality, but I’ve always found Samsung’s browser easy to use. If you’re outside the US and want to take advantage of YouTube PIP, at least now you have an easy way to do so without paying for it.

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