Android 8.0 Oreo brought support for picture-in-picture mode to Google’s mobile operating system, allowing nested playback even what an app was minimized by the user. Many apps have since been updated to support this mode and while Google was obviously the first to support this feature with the YouTube app, it decided to keep this feature locked behind the YouTube Red paywall. However, it appears that it’s now testing the picture-in-picture mode for non-Red users, which basically means any and all YouTube users.
Multiple reports have surfaced that some videos on YouTube are now allowing for picture-in-picture playback even when the user doesn’t have a YouTube Red subscription. However, don’t think you would get this functionality with a caveat, though.
The reports also reveal that it has been left up to content owners to decide whether or not they want to allow picture-in-picture playback for their videos. It seems that the owners of most music videos on YouTube have decided to not allow PiP playback, which is a shame, as this feature would have primarily been used to stream free music from YouTube while working on something else on the device.
Google appears to be testing this feature on a small scale and it’s unclear right now if and when it’s going to roll out this feature to all YouTube users.