RoutineHub • YouTube PiP

YouTube PiP

Bring any YouTube video into PiP directly from YouTube app or Safari

Description

Open YouTube video directly in picture-in-picture from the YouTube app or Safari
Support for 720p and 360p
Control playback speed
Quickly jump forward or backward in video
Play live videos
Light and dark theme support

Screenshot

How to use

Install the Shortcut
Install Scriptable AppStore
Open a YouTube video in the YouTube app.
Press the share button and select “More”
Run the Shortcut by selecting “YouTube PiP” on the list (protip: add it as a favorite in the share sheet to move it to the top of the list)

Requirements

To install 3rd party Shortcuts you enable “Allow untrusted Shortcuts” in iOS Settings -> Shortcuts
The Shortcut is build using Scriptable and this app must be installed. It’s a free app with a tip jar.
Works on any device running iOS14 or iPadOS13 or newer.

Advanced

For advanced users its possible to tweak the Shortcut a bit using the configuration at the top of the Shortcut.

pip: If true Picture-in-Picture will automatically be enabled after the video has loaded. Set to false to keep the video in the player window.
speed: The default selected playback speed. Valid values are 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0
hd: The preselected quality. If true the highest quality available will be selected (currently 720p)
completion: Optional parameter. The name of a Shortcut that will be executed just after PiP has been automatically enabled. This is useful for running a Shortcut that will show the SpringBoard such as https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e1b2044fb3eb4134880954bad71681df
theme: The theme to use it in player. Empty value will automatically select theme based on system appearance. Valid values are: nord, polar and ocean-next

Thanks to @Saha_ for the Shortcut update steps.

Latest Release Notes

4.5 - June 26, 2021, 7:31 a.m.

Fixes the shortcut

Version history

Feedback

@Saha_

Loved it! :) Btw did you use my embedded update style, I am just curious?
Reply · 3 years ago

@petergam Author

Thanks, I appreciate that. Yes I totally did. I hope that’s okay by you. I love that it doesn’t depend on other Shortcuts. I have added some acknowledgement to the description :)
Reply · 3 years ago

@Saha_

It's completely fine.Thanks for the credit though.Happy shortcutting :)
Reply · 3 years ago

@TonyT

Hello I was wondering if you could explain how to tweak this to make it so that when the shortcut asks for the URL, if it could automatically paste from the clipboard, and possibly run afterwards as well. Or point to a good source to discover how to learn to do this.
Reply · 3 years ago

@Joexg

I actually figured this out when v4 was released. Check this version out: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2531034db067483d9d4b9bb59a12606c If you have a youtube link in clipboard, there are no extra prompts, the video just opens.
Reply · 2 years, 12 months ago

@rclark

Hmm .... link doesn’t work for me. Says shortcut no longer available.
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@Joexg

I think that’s due to the shortcuts outage. Here’s a fresh link, hopefully it works. https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/89e31ec9a54943be8b8f633435ca8171
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@Joexg

hey PeterGam, I made some tweaks to YouTube PiP that I think you should include as an update. This version checks if the clipboard contains a youtube link of any kind, and if it does, it will open that video in PiP without asking you to paste it in the Ask for Input menu. It’ll even remove any other text that isn’t part of the URL, for the best experience. If clipboard doesn’t have a YouTube link, it behaves just like before. https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2531034db067483d9d4b9bb59a12606c
Reply · 3 years ago

@humax9110

Great job We need the title of the video & download button
Reply · 2 years, 11 months ago

@ckcu

Hello. Many thanks for this great tool. Could you please also come up with a way for Youtube TV app, 60 Minutes App, CNN App? Appreciate it!
Reply · 2 years, 11 months ago

@staticMike

The app is great! It’s great and makes my life so much easier but there’s one thing that’s lacking for me. I find myself using the YT PIP for longer videos mostly and I do not always start watching the vid straight away in pip mode. I wondered this issue must have been already addressed and I updated. I saw you added +/- 10sec rewind buttons which is great but we already have +/-15sec rewind buttons in the pip player. Wouldn’t it be possible for you to add +/-1minute buttons? Many thanks!
Reply · 2 years, 11 months ago

@daggerDroid

Awesome work, Please add support for 240p(for those data saver users who wants to listen only)
Reply · 2 years, 11 months ago

@ReddPizzai

Thought it was great until it broke. Its broken now.
Reply · 2 years, 11 months ago

@bernard

It stopped working ;( any updates how to fix this?
Reply · 2 years, 10 months ago

@ReddPizzai

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/picture-in-picture-fix-youtube/ I would try this. Haven't gotten around to trying it but many people say it works
Reply · 2 years, 10 months ago

@wojciech679

iPhone X, iOS 14.2. "Exception Occurree Error on line 599:20: SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: missing terminating ] for character class
Reply · 2 years, 9 months ago

@newac

In iOS 14.3 I have the error: "Error on line 609:20: SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: missing terminating ] for character class"
Reply · 2 years, 9 months ago

@alissonrod

great idea! it Works very well! congratulations! I have a question: where can I see the privacy policy and terms of use? what data is sent for using this shortcut?
Reply · 2 years, 8 months ago

@Despair

I have some UI suggestions, I'd appreciate if you added border radius (curves) to the buttons of about 4/3 px, changed the background color to rgb(28,31,34), changed the foreground color to rgb(25,27,30) and changed the color of the selected button to be a but darker than the provided foreground color.
Reply · 2 years, 8 months ago

@ramip

First time using it. After sharing it opens the floating window with the settings, but the floating video is closed immediately after closing the settings window
Reply · 2 years, 8 months ago

@lardonate

Yeah I keep getting that Exception occurred message but it only seems to happen on videos that are using Japanese text for me for some reason. Otherwise performing fine!! Nice job (Error on line 609:20: SyntaxError: invalid regular expression: missing terminating ] for character class)
Reply · 2 years, 8 months ago

@eThor

I agree with you, I receive exactly the same error and it doesn't work at all :/
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@TobiSunny

I wanted to use it to listen to a book witch is read in 60 chapters on YouTube playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2msBkO3MUibxxEm_npgDWZ5Vee7dABhb but the shortcut works with other videos but not with those from this playlist. Do you know how to enable it? I keep getting the “Exeption occurred” message when trying.
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@TobiSunny

@petergam Author

Can you try again with the latest version? You need to open each individual video. There is currently no support for loading a playlist of videos.
Reply · 2 years, 4 months ago

@Lupin3

Thank you! I was hoping YT would have enabled this feature by now. Wondering if there’s a way to add scrubbing? Not sure if it can be done, but would be good instead of having to either hit the skip back a lot or start the video over.
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@routin556

hello this is so great but I can’t open this video https://youtu.be/tfvMnwTRt4Y
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@yumax

144P or 244P please only listen
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@rclark

Shortcut not available. Link doesn’t work. Thanks.
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@yumax

Could you make a shortcuts let live stream url like m3u8 play with pip mode through scriptable?
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@gelat

I’m getting error on line 300:103
Reply · 2 years, 4 months ago

@petergam Author