I am someone who, like many other people, watches videos on YouTube on a daily basis. And while I usually subscribe to YouTube Premium, I sometimes unsubscribe from the service for a month or two, and the feature I miss the most is the ability to listen to videos with the screen offI can continue to listen to my favorite podcasts or music without taking my phone out of my pocket.
It is one of the best YouTube Premium features, but fortunately there are ways to achieve this without having to pay. And I’m not talking about those third-party apps that “unblock” YouTube features, because I generally don’t recommend most of those apps. But if you have a Samsung Galaxy mobile, you can listen to a video in the background or with the screen off without paying or installing an application. The key is in the Samsung browser.
Samsung Browser is one of the best native apps on the Samsung Galaxy, even for listening to music on YouTube
I can’t say it enough: Samsung Browser is one of the best apps available on Samsung Galaxy devices that many people probably don’t use. The browser is full of very useful features, some of which artificial intelligence (to summarize articles, for example) and others to protect our privacy while browsing.
But also, this browser lets you do the two things I miss most in YouTube Premium when I am not subscribed to the service:
- Play audio from videos backgroundso I can continue listening while I do something else, like read an article in the same browser or even use another app, like WhatsApp.
- Play video with the screen offto be able to do what I mentioned a few lines ago: listen to a song, a podcast or any video while doing something else, without taking your phone out of your pocket.
From left to right: a video streamed on YouTube in the Samsung browser. When you exit the app, the video continues playing in the background and can be paused from the notifications screen. It can also be paused and played from the lock screen.
The process of doing this is quite simple and straightforward, there is no need to do anything complicated or enable any additional function in the browser: just go to the video on YouTube, whatever it is, and to read it. Once the video starts we can go to another window in the same Samsung browser or even exit the browser and use another app: a social network, the notes application, WhatsApp, Telegram, or any other.
If we turn off the mobile screen, the audio playback of the video will continue and we can pause it or start playing again directly from the lock screenthe same way we can do when playing music on Spotify or any other application.
It is one of the Most Useful Features of Samsung Browserand it not only works with YouTube, it is also possible to use background playback on other platforms, like social networks or some streaming platforms.
Therefore, if you own a Samsung Galaxy device, whether it is a cell phone or a tablet, you now know: you can take advantage of this function to listen to songs, podcasts or videos in general with the screen off, without installing any suspicious application or paying anything. And if you have a Xiaomi mobile, there is also a hidden function to do the same on these devices.
Cover photo | Ivan Linares for Xataka
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