YouTube Closes Free Workaround, Background Playback Now Requires Premium Subscription

Google has closed a loophole that free YouTube users have exploited to enjoy background playback—a key feature of YouTube Premium—without paying for a subscription.

Background playback has been one of the primary features of YouTube Premium, allowing videos to continue playing even when the application is minimised or the mobile screen is turned off.

In practice, however, some non-Premium users took advantage of third-party browsers such as Samsung Internet, Brave, and Vivaldi to access background playback through the mobile web version.

Following numerous reports in recent days, Google confirmed it had updated its system to close the loophole.

“Background playback is a feature specifically intended for YouTube Premium members,” Google stated in a confirmation quoted by GSMArena on Monday, 2 March 2026. “Although some non-Premium users previously could access it through mobile web browsers under certain conditions, we have updated the experience to ensure consistency across all our platforms.”

Google did not specify the number of users affected by the new policy.

However, the move is viewed as part of the company’s strategy to maintain the exclusivity of paid features and encourage conversion to Premium subscriptions. The latest policy thus ends one of the most popular tricks amongst free YouTube users.