Microsoft is preparing to introduce a YouTube Premium-like feature, a move that could greatly please its users.
Microsoft has made YouTube Premium’s popular background video playback feature available for free to Android users through the Edge browser. For now, the company is testing this feature in the Edge Canary version.
Microsoft Brings a YouTube Premium Feature
With this feature, users can start playing a YouTube video and continue listening to the audio even if they switch to another app, lock their phone’s screen, or navigate to a different tab — all without interruptions.
To use the background video playback feature, Android users need to install the latest version of Edge Canary. After that, they can enable the feature by following these steps:
- Open the browser and type
edge://flagsinto the address bar. - Search for the option “Video Background Play” and enable it.
- Go to Browser Settings → Site Settings → Allow background audio playback and turn it on.
Once these steps are completed, users can enjoy uninterrupted YouTube audio playback while switching apps, locking the screen, or browsing other tabs.
Microsoft’s move offers an alternative for users who don’t want to subscribe to YouTube Premium but still want access to this feature. If this functionality is eventually added to the stable version of Edge, it could significantly impact YouTube Premium subscriptions.
So, how will Google respond to this? In the past, Google has been known to block certain Microsoft apps, claiming that they violated YouTube’s policies. Therefore, Google’s stance on this situation has become a hot topic in the tech world.
What do you think about this development? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
