The biggest feature YouTube TV has rolled out in a long time has almost nothing to do with video. For today at least, audio is king. YouTube TV is “running an experiment” that enables its playback — video and the accompanying audio — to continue after a user’s phone or tablet screen is locked, a spokesperson told IndieWire.
The experimental feature is available for Android and iOS mobile users. A website called 9to5Google first reported Reddit users commenting on their discovery of the feature. Background playback has been rolling out in pockets for about a week now — your access may be yet to come.
“If a viewer has the YouTube TV app on and then goes to lock their phone, playback will continue,” the spokesperson said. “If users want to avoid background playback, they can pause the video before locking their phone.” You may be thinking: Why would I want to do that? Background playback may sound like a pretty minor convenience (or even a minor annoyance), but try telling that to anybody who listens to podcasts via YouTube, watches music videos on the platform, or can get by with just the audio guidance from instructional videos while their hands are covered in grease — or worse.
(It can get so much worse.) There’s a difference though between YouTube TV and plain old YouTube . The background-playback feature has actually been available for a while on the regular UGC-focused YouTube app — you just have to pay for the privilege.
UGC stands for user gener.