Google has officially confirmed that it is closing long-standing loopholes that allowed users to play YouTube videos in the background without a YouTube Premium subscription.
For years, some users were able to bypass the paid restriction by using third-party mobile browsers such as Samsung Internet, Brave, or Vivaldi. These browsers allowed videos to continue playing even when the screen was locked or when switching apps — a feature meant to be exclusive to YouTube Premium.
Following a surge of user complaints in recent days, Google confirmed that it has updated YouTube’s behavior across platforms to block background playback for non-Premium users.
“Background playback is a feature intended to be exclusive for YouTube Premium members. 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 our platforms,” Google said in a statement.
The company did not specify how many users are affected, but the change appears to target browser-based workarounds that required little effort to use. While other unofficial methods may still exist, they are reportedly more complex, making casual bypassing far less accessible.
Background playback has long been one of YouTube Premium’s key selling points, alongside ad-free viewing and offline downloads. With this move, Google is reinforcing the paywall around Premium features and signaling stricter enforcement going forward.
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