• YouTube is rolling out picture-in-picture (PiP) to free users globally
• This was already available to free users in the US, but elsewhere, you had to be a Premium or Premium Lite customer
• PiP lets you keep watching videos in a small player when you leave the YouTube app

If you don’t have YouTube Premium, you should probably consider it, as it’s arguably one of the better subscription services out there. But the free version of YouTube has just got a little bit better for users outside the US, as Google is enabling picture-in-picture (PiP) globally.

That means whatever kind of YouTube account you have, you’ll soon be able to view longform, non-music videos in a little window while interacting with other apps.

To do this, just swipe up or tap the home button to exit the YouTube app while a video is playing — though it might not work yet, as Google claims that PiP is “rolling out to all users globally in the coming months.”

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An upgrade for both iOS and Android

The feature will work on both iPhone and Android, but it won’t be anything new if you’re in the US, as, for whatever reason, the company already rolled this out to free users in the US a while back.

It’s also no change for Premium Lite members, who already had this capability globally, or to Premium members, who again could already do this globally, and can additionally enjoy music content using picture-in-picture, which is a feature that remains exclusive to Premium customers.

Still, having picture-in-picture at all is potentially very useful, so it’s great to see Google make this feature widely available to non-paying customers. If only background play would also come to free customers, then I might be able to ditch my Premium subscription once and for all...

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.