How To Listen to YouTube with the Screen Off on iPhone and Android

YouTube is without a doubt one of the most widely used platforms out there. Among the many different types of content, it allows artists to share their music with the world. This is why one of the most popular uses of YouTube is music streaming.

The problem is, YouTube wants you to watch the videos, not just listen. This is why there is no option for background streaming within the app. As soon as you exit the app, or turn off your screen, the music stops.

Luckily, there are many ways around this. With the right methods, you can listen to YouTube music while using other apps, even when your phone is locked. So let’s go over some of the most popular solutions for both Android and iPhone.

Using a Browser

One of the easiest ways to stream YouTube music in the background is doing it using a browser such as Firefox. It has a neat feature that allows you to listen to YouTube with your screen off.

The best thing is that it’s very simple to do it. Here’s what you need to do:

Copy the link of the video you want to listen to.
Open Firefox and paste the link.
Turn on desktop mode.

That’s it. Now you can listen to any YouTube video in the background. If you’re using an iPhone, you can do the same thing with the default Safari browser. Just copy and paste the link to Safari and play the video.

There is a catch, though. When you exit Safari, the music will stop playing. To resume it, simply go to the control center and press the play button. This way you only hear the music, which will keep playing after you turn your screen off.

Since this is mostly a bug that may get fixed in future iOS updates, you can download the Dolphin browser and use it instead of Safari.

This is the only way that works for both Android and iOS, aside from subscribing to YouTube Red, which will cost you 9.99/month. Since these operating systems work differently, there are apps specific to them that you can use to stream YouTube with the screen on. Here are the best ones for Android:

NewPipe

This is a very useful app, but a bit tricky to get, since you can’t find it in the Play Store. Instead, you need to download F-Droid first. F-Droid is an alternative app store, which requires you to allow your phone to install apps from unknown sources.

To do this, go to Settings > Security, and check the ‘Unknown Sources’ box. When you do this, install F-Droid and search for NewPipe.

After you run it, search for your song and play it. Below the video, you’ll see the ‘Background’ option. After you select it, your music will keep playing even after you turn off the screen.

Black Screen of Life

This handy app uses the proximity sensor to turn off the screen. No matter what’s playing in the background, the screen will turn off as soon as you block the proximity sensor.

This app isn’t available on the official Play Store either, so go to the official site to download it. Once you do that, play any YouTube music you want and enable the Black Screen of Life, then just block the proximity sensor. This way, your music will keep playing no matter if the screen is on or off.

Now it’s time to see the options that are available for iPhone. Since iOS is a lot more restrictive than Android, you can’t install apps from unknown sources, unless you jailbreak your iPhone. Thankfully, you won’t need to do this, since there are solutions that allow you to listen to YouTube with the screen off.

TubiFun Player

TubiFun Music Player works like a browser. Just follow the instructions below:

Install TubiFun from the App Store.
Run it and search for your music.
Exit the app, bring the control center up, and press play.
Lock your screen and the music should keep playing.

It’s very easy to use and it will make sure you don’t waste a lot of battery on actually watching the video. You can also use other apps while the music is playing in the background.

Download Music From YouTube

If you want to be able to listen to YouTube music wherever you go and save a lot of data at the same time, downloading music is the best way to do it. There are many online services that allow you to convert or download a YouTube video, and they all pretty much work in the same way.

Here’s what to do:

Copy the link from YouTube.
Paste it into the webpage of the service you’re using.
Go to ‘Download’ or ‘Convert’.

This way, you can play anything from YouTube while the screen is off and you don’t need internet connection to do it. Of course, this works for Android as well, but there are more convenient options, like the ones we’ve shown you.