Google may soon integrate background playback into its YouTube TV mobile apps

You may soon be able to continue listening to your TV shows on YouTube TV even if you can't watch them. Google finally appears to be integrating background playback into its YouTube TV streaming service. The company confirmed this The edge that it is “experimenting” with enabling YouTube TV playback after a phone is locked.

As reported by 9to5GoogleThe feature was discovered a few weeks ago by Reddit users who found that they could continue to listen to YouTube TV audio even after putting the video app in the background on their mobile devices.

Background play allows you to continue listening to your content even when your phone screen is turned off or locked. This means you can hear the sound even if you can't follow what's happening. This can be helpful in many situations, such as when you're watching a live sporting event and need to pick your child up from school but want to continue hearing the action while driving safely.

The premium subscription to Google's YouTube service offers the option of background playback and this subscription also removes ads from your videos. But that wasn't possible with Google's Live TV service, which starts at $72.99 per month and includes advertising. Instead, if you exit the YouTube TV app, the show will pause and the sound will stop.

Allison Toh, product communications manager at YouTube, confirmed this in an email to The edge that the company is actually working on bringing it to YouTube TV:

I can confirm that we are conducting an experiment that allows YouTube TV playback to continue after the phone screen is locked for Android and iOS mobile users.

If a viewer has the YouTube TV app turned on and then locks their phone, playback will continue. If users want to avoid background playback, they can pause the video before locking their phone.

However, it's not an official feature yet, and Toh didn't respond when asked if there are plans for a wider rollout. She said the experiment is currently available to a select group of users on Android and iOS mobile devices.