With YouTube TV you can now listen to your favorite shows in the background

The ability to play YouTube TV in the background is finally available to users, giving them a new way to enjoy their TV shows. We've long seen background playback as a premium feature in apps like YouTube. So it's interesting to see this feature finally coming to YouTube TV, which has been a paid service since its initial release. If you're not familiar with this feature, it allows subscribers to play a video in the background or simply listen to the audio of that video while your phone's screen is off or locked.

This feature also works when multitasking with other apps with the sound playing in the background. This is ideal for someone who is constantly on the go and offers some flexibility when consuming your own content. The first instance of this was spotted on Reddit a few weeks ago, but for people who saw this feature on their devices, it was a godsend. Now it looks like a full rollout is taking place, with more and more users seeing the option to play YouTube TV in the background, which has been reported by the folks at 9to5Google and opens up the ability to multitask when needed.

A new way to enjoy your favorite TV shows

Now you don't actually have to do anything to activate background playback. All you have to do is pay a subscription to YouTube TV and then you can have your favorite shows playing in the background at any time. Of course, this feature is also available on mobile devices and can be used on iOS and Android. We were able to test this feature and it is live with version 8.39.0. As for actions, if your show goes into PiP mode, you can now close it from the screen and still have the sound play.

Of course, you can always switch to another app while watching YouTube TV and the audio will just keep playing, which is fantastic if you want to multitask. Of course, it really depends on how you work or use your phone, as having audio playing in the background can be annoying for some, especially if this feature hasn't been used in a while. Luckily, if you have something playing in the background and want to control it, you can always use the Quick Settings menu to pause it.

There are currently no settings for this feature in the app, so you'll just have to experience it as is. Hopefully YouTube TV will introduce more options for this setting as it can be quite confusing for some who are unfamiliar with this type of change. As mentioned, you can now enjoy this feature simply by being a paid subscriber to YouTube TV. Of course, this will gradually be rolled out to all users. So if you don't think it will work at the moment, you just have to be patient. YouTube TV is now a little more expensive than before, but still offers great access to many different TV shows and sporting events.