So even though the new iPad Pro and iOS 9 does allow you to use the Split View side by side multitasking, Google’s YouTube app does not provide support for this function. It also does not provide optimization for the large screen of the iPad Pro. However, what can be perhaps the most irritating thing of all for some is that the YouTube app does not support PIP, the Picture in Picture mode of iOS 9. Even though YouTube is itself an app that only focuses on playing and sharing videos it still fails to facilitate such an important feature however you can still get Picture in Picture for YouTube by using a third party app like YouPlayer.
YouPlayer is a free application that is available on the Apple App Store and also offers in-application purchases that can disable advertisements for only $1.99.
The application also features a Google login to allow you to access your YouTube account. Through this, you can access all your subscriptions, playlists as well as likes and channels. You can also select the quality of your cellular data or WiFi, a dark mode and a “Kids Space”, which is limited to those who actually pay for it.
You can also use a web application called YouTube PIP to do so. First find the video you want to watch on YouTube and then after tapping the share button, copy the link of the video by clicking on “Copy Link”. Then open YouTube PIP’s webpage on your Safari browser by clicking here. Now Paste the link of the YouTube video in the URL field of the YouTube PIP web page and click on “Go”. Now your video will open in a box on the screen of your iOS device. click on it to start playing the video and then select the Picture-in-Picture button to see the video in this mode. However, this is a very long and laborious method. So perhaps you should just use the YouPlayer app instead.
You can enable Picture in Picture mode for all YouTube videos that are embedded in Safari but if you want to experience the complete YouTube experience then you can use YouPlayer to do so. You can also download the optimized version of YouTube for your iPad Pro from here.