YouTube Has Now Stopped Working In Background For These Users: All Details

Last Updated:February 02, 2026, 13:08 IST

YouTube free users have enjoyed a lot of benefits but the company is now blocking everyone from using this popular feature.

YouTube is blocking all free users from using this feature

YouTube is blocking more users from using this popular feature which has become part of its premium offering for a few years. The platform offers background playback which means the song can continue playing even when the screen is turned off or you access other apps on the device. 

This is mostly a premium feature but many users bypassed this restriction by using it for free via third-party web browsers that don’t redirect you to the Android app for the streaming platform. Now reports suggest even these routes to use the option free are being blocked by the company. 

Background Playback Blocked For Everyone 

YouTube is clearly aware of these tricks that made its premium feature work for everyone. But now the company has tweaked its settings for third-party browsers which stops them from enabling background playback for their free YouTube account. 

“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," YouTube has been quoted saying in a report by Android Authority. 

It is not entirely shocking to see YouTube make this move, especially when it seems to have become extremely desperate for people to pay for its platform. Most of the regular features on YouTube are now part of the premium offering, and stopping other avenues to use a basic option like background playback tells you how much it is willing to do so that people are forced into paying rather than use the platform for free.

Technically, it doesn’t have the power to stop its features working on non-Google products but the app can be tweaked at the code level to restrict its support for play over other apps’ options. 

YouTube Premium costs Rs 149 per month after a recent price hike from the company. You also have a Lite version priced at Rs 89 per month, and a family plan which gives you access for up to 5 members for Rs 299 per month.

News tech YouTube Has Now Stopped Working In Background For These Users: All Details

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