YouTube is the internet’s replacement for the TV, so it’s only natural that we’d use it as our background noise provider, however, Google doesn’t make that easy on mobile devices. Unless you have a YouTube Red subscription, YouTube only plays as a foreground app, meaning you can’t use your phone and listen to music or podcasts on YouTube at the same time. Well, unless you cheat a little.

One of the most annoying restrictions on YouTube app is that it automatically pauses the video you’re watching or listening to when you navigate to another screen or open another app on your device.

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On the iPhone you can use a third-party browser such as Dolphin to start a video, then exit the app and resume playback via the iOS Control Center. Dead simple. Almost the same thing exists for Android users with Google’s own Chrome browser. If you switch to the desktop (rather than mobile) YouTube site in Chrome, you’ll be able to start a video in the browser, then exit the app and resume playback from the notification shade. This is by far the slickest of all options: you can play or pause either from notifications or from the phone’s lock screen. Even better: there’s nothing stopping you from opening further tabs in Chrome and continuing to use the browser as usual.

HOW TO DO IT FOR ANDROID:

  1. Open www.youtube.com in the Chrome browser.
  2. In the three-dot menu at the top right, check the “Request desktop site” box.
  3. Navigate to the video you want to listen to and press play.
  4. If you’re shown a warning saying YouTube wants to send you notifications, accept it.
  5. Exit the Chrome app and you’ll be able to resume playback from the notification menu.

FOR IOS:

  1. Download the Dolphin web browser to your iOS device.
  2. Open www.youtube.com in Dolphin.
  3. Navigate to the video you want to listen to and press play.
  4. Exit the Dolphin app and you’ll be able to resume playback from the iOS Control Center

It’s obvious Google knows that being able to just listen to audio from YouTube is a desired feature, which is why the company reserves it as a perk for YouTube Red subscribers. Browsing around online, you’ll also see quite a few other methods for enabling background play, some of which Google has already neutralized. But even so, the present workarounds for both Android and iOS users are laughably easy.