For Christmas, I got my husband and myself YouTube Premium, and as much as I hate paying for yet another streaming service, it’s pretty dang nice. There’s ad-blocking, sure, but there are also other bonuses, like additional playback speed options and audio that continues to play in the background when you lock your phone. However, some users have developed hacks to get a few of these features without a subscription, believing they should be included with the site’s free tier rather than being locked behind a paywall. Google’s been cracking down on ad blockers for a while, but now it’s coming after another common YouTube hack—free background play.
Performing this hack was simple. In many cases, you simply needed to watch YouTube in a non-Chrome browser (and definitely not the official YouTube app). Samsung Internet, for instance, had free YouTube background play officially built-in, with the company even publishing official tutorials on how to use it. Brave also offered this feature, as did Vivaldi. If your browser didn’t support free background play by default, you could also usually find an extension for it.
Unfortunately, according to reporting from Android Authority, the hack no longer seems to work in most cases. Toward the end of January, the site noticed that users across Samsung Internet, Brave, and Microsoft Edge complained that free background play no longer worked for them, even when enabled in their browsers or through an extension. Now Google has responded to a question sent by the publication, confirming that it purposefully broke free background play in third-party browsers, whether enabled in the browser’s settings or through an extension.
“Background playback is a feature intended to be exclusive for YouTube Premium members,” a spokesperson for the company said. “While some non-Premium users may have previously been able to access this through mobile web browsers in certain scenarios, we have updated the experience to ensure consistency across all out platforms.”
Well, dang. I’ve reached out to Google for additional comment, but it seems the eye of Sauron is upon us. Google is now officially cracking down on more than ad blocking.
What do you think so far?
That said, while Google’s efforts do seem to be affecting many users, not everyone is unable to access background play without paying. One user said it’s now been re-enabled on Brave, and I can confirm that I’m able to access it on Safari with my iPhone using the Vinegar extension.
It’s unclear how long these efforts will remain operational, but at least we’ve now been able to diagnose a cause. Free YouTube background play didn’t break on accident, and that means developers and users will have to be extra crafty to keep the hack alive in the future.
