iOS Background Video Play

Posted by PCG1 on April 10, 2012 07:34 pm 13

I love helping my friends with their tech, be it efficiency improvements or the hot new app. So imagine my horror listening to the latest Vergecast when my demi-god Paul Miller states his annoyance at being unable to play YouTube in the background using iOS. There was nothing I could do to inform, being on a packed train at the time I could not even scream the answer to satisfy my deep altruistic desires.

As you can imagine that pent up unused 'help' is causing quite a burden, that is the purpose of this post. At the same time, it should also explain how to play audio in the background when using iOS. I apologise in advance if the guide for this has already been posted, some searching could not find a previous post.

1. First up, start playing your YouTube video (or other video/audio app)

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2. Return to the home screen

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3. Access the task switching bar via home-button double tap or four-finger swipe up

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4. Swipe your finger to the right on the multitasking bar (to access the bar to the left)

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5. Press 'play' and you're good to start surfing, tweeting or even collecting coins and escaping ghouls in Temple Run

Some other information picked up having used this technique:

  • It works for most (not all) audio/video apps
  • Everytime you return to the audio/video app and then leave it again, you need to repeat the process
  • You do not need to be on the home screen to restart the background audio, you can continue from stage two in another app (e.g. Safari)
  • Not all apps will play friendly with this, causing the sound you're playing to pause regardless (often games with their own sound)
  • Only tested with iOS 5 (maybe tested with iOS 4, can't remember)
If this tip is new to you, I hope you enjoy. I only got my iPad 2, 10 months ago. During the early stages the lack of background audio was my primary gripe, this added so much utility!