I am someone who, like many other people, watches videos on YouTube every day. And although I usually subscribe to YouTube Premium, sometimes I unsubscribe from the service for a month or two, and the feature I miss most is the ability to listen to videos with the screen offso I can continue listening to my favorite podcasts or some music without taking my phone out of my pocket.
This is one of the best YouTube Premium features, but fortunately, there are ways to achieve this without having to check out. And I’m not talking about those third-party apps that “unlock” YouTube features, since I don’t usually recommend most of these 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 any application. The key is in the Samsung browser.
The 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 are probably not using. The browser is packed with very useful features, including some of artificial intelligence (to summarize articles, for example) and others to protect our privacy when browsing.
But also, this browser allows you to do the two things I miss most about YouTube Premium when I am not subscribed to the service:
- Play audio from videos in backgroundso I can continue listening while I do something else, like reading an article within the same browser or even using another app, like WhatsApp.
- Play the 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.
The process to do so is quite simple and direct, it is not necessary to do anything complicated or activate any additional function in the browser: we just access the video on YouTube, whatever it may be, and play 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 app, WhatsApp, Telegram, or any other.
If we turn off the mobile screen, the video audio will continue playing, and we can pause it or start playing again directly from lock screenin the same way we can do when playing music on Spotify or any other application.
This 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, such as social networks or some streaming platforms.
Therefore, if you have a Samsung Galaxy device, regardless of whether it is a mobile phone or a tablet, now you 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 app or pay nothing. And if you have a Xiaomi mobile, there is also a hidden function to do the same on these devices.
Cover photo | Iván Linares for Xataka