February 19, 2026
Muted unless you pay
YouTube Blocks Background Listening Workaround for Free Users
YouTube kills background play for free - fans cry cash grab while Brave says it's back
TLDR: YouTube blocked background listening on mobile browsers for free users, keeping it as a paid perk, while Brave claims it restored the feature. Commenters are torn between calling it a greedy move tied to Google’s AI costs, trading workarounds like Vinegar and NewPipe, and joking about YouTube’s “Five Second Gaslight” delays.
YouTube just slammed the door on a favorite free trick: listening to videos with your phone screen off. Google says background play is a Premium-only perk ($13.99 a month), and it’s now blocking it on mobile browsers to keep things “consistent.” Cue the internet riot. One crowd is yelling cash grab, another is yelling antitrust, and a third is passing around alternate apps like party favors.
The hottest take? A user linked the move to Google’s AI spending burn, wondering if this is a scramble for revenue. Others say it’s not just greedy, it’s grimy: one iOS user swears the Vinegar extension still restores the native video player and picture-in-picture, adding it “should be illegal” for Google to break it. Meanwhile, the browser war gets spicy—Brave declared background play “fixed” in its app, turning this into a cat-and-mouse saga (Brave said; Android Authority report).
Commenters also revived the “Five Second Gaslight” meme, accusing YouTube of intentionally slowing videos for ad-block users so they’d blame their internet. Others are bailing entirely, pointing to NewPipe and PipePipe. And some just shrugged: management at YouTube is losing the plot, they say. Drama level: maximum.
Key Points
- •Google blocked background listening for YouTube on mobile web browsers for non‑Premium users.
- •Background playback remains an exclusive benefit for YouTube Premium, priced at $13.99 per month.
- •Workarounds using ad blockers on non‑Chrome browsers are no longer effective, per Android Authority.
- •Brave claims it has restored background playback in its browser, indicating ongoing countermeasures.
- •YouTube warns that third‑party video download tools can be risky, and has previously targeted ad blocker users with slower load times and buffering.