YouTube quietly pulled the rug out from under a long-running workaround that let people keep video audio playing with their phone screen off. Over the last week reports flooded forums and social feeds: audio would cut out the moment a browser was minimized or the display was locked. A brief notification reading “MediaOngoingActivity” flickered for some users before playback controls vanished — and with them, background listening.
This wasn’t an isolated bug in a single app. People on Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge all reported the same behavior, and a few iOS users said Safari showed similar limits. The scope and timing made the pattern hard to read as anything but an intentional change. Google has now confirmed that it intentionally updated YouTube so background playback is enforced as a Premium-only feature on all platforms.
What changed and why it matters
Background play — the ability to keep listening after you lock your phone or switch apps — is one of YouTube Premium’s marquee benefits. For years, many users sidestepped the paywall by launching YouTube in third-party mobile browsers or toggling desktop mode. That convenience powered everything from podcasts-on-the-go to ambient playlists when people didn’t want to use a dedicated music app.
Google told outlets that background playback is meant to be exclusive to Premium subscribers and that it updated the experience to ensure consistency across platforms. You can read the official overview of Premium features on YouTube’s support pages here: YouTube Premium help.
The move is effective for converting friction into subscriptions: if the background audio trick is gone, many casual listeners face a choice — sign up for Premium or keep the screen on while streaming.
The evidence and user workarounds
Community reports were specific. On Samsung phones some users watched the media controls blink into existence and then disappear; on other devices playback would simply stop a couple seconds after the screen went dark. That matching symptom across multiple browsers made a random bug less likely.
Some people reported short-lived relief: one Brave user said background play returned for them after an update, and others suggested switching a browser to “desktop site” sometimes bypassed the restriction. But those fixes are intermittent and unreliable; Google’s confirmation indicates a platform-level change rather than a flaky client bug.
This is not the first time YouTube has moved to close loopholes. The company has tightened third-party clients and ad-block workarounds before; the latest tweak feels like another step toward a more uniform — and more paid — user experience. It’s in line with other recent platform experiments from Google, whether around new interface controls or AI-driven features, as the company rethinks what’s free and what’s behind a subscription. See how Google has been rolling out and testing interface changes and agentic features in other products like AI Mode’s booking controls and floating controls tested in Search Live floating controls.
What you can do now
If background play is important to you, your most reliable options are:
- Subscribe to YouTube Premium to restore background playback across apps and browsers.
- Use dedicated audio services (music or podcast apps) that support background listening natively.
- Try toggling a browser’s desktop site or testing different browsers — a few users reported temporary success — but expect fixes to be hit-or-miss.
For many, the change is an annoyance; for YouTube it’s a clear monetization decision. Expect more pressure on free users who relied on clever browser workarounds. If you’re the sort who keeps playlists running while commuting or uses talk-heavy channels as a podcast substitute, it’s worth weighing the cost of Premium against the convenience it restores.
This tightening is another reminder that platform-level behavior can shift quickly, especially as big services standardize features across devices. If you rely on these hacks, plan for the possibility they won’t last long — and keep an eye on browser updates in case any developers find reliable, legitimate ways to preserve background playback for users without Premium.