YouTube Blocks Background Play on Mobile Web Browsers, But Brave is Resisting

YouTube has quietly pushed an update to its mobile website last week to block background playback on some third-party mobile web browsers. The video platform requires a Premium subscription to enjoy background playback on its iOS and Android apps. Still, some web browsers such as Samsung Internet, Vivaldi, and the privacy-focused Brave allowed mobile users to enjoy background playback without paying.

Last week, multiple reports revealed that background play on YouTube had suddenly stopped working on Samsung Internet, Vivaldi, Microsoft Edge, and other third-party web browsers. Android Authority reached out to Google to understand what happened, and a company spokesperson confirmed that YouTube had pushed an update to close the loophole.

“Background playback is a feature intended to be exclusive for YouTube Premium members. While some non-Premium users may have previously been able to access this through mobile web browsers in certain scenarios, we have updated the experience to ensure consistency across all our platforms,” the company’s spokesperson said on January 29.

Well, despite Google updating its YouTube mobile website to restrict background play to Premium users, Brave has since updated its mobile browser to circumvent the block. The company explained on X that Brave users may need to update content filters by going to Settings > Shields & Privacy > Content Filtering to make YouTube background play work again. Brave’s content filters can also block YouTube end video elements, Shorts videos, and other distractions.

A background play fix is out for iOS now!

If it’s not working yet, update the content filters by going to Settings > Shields & Privacy > Content Filtering and clicking the “Update Lists” button.

Also make sure you have “Enable Background Audio” turned on at Settings > Media.

— Brave (@brave) February 1, 2026

It will be interesting to see if the YouTube team pushes another update to kill background playback on Brave. The video platform announced last year that it had 125 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, and it needs that number to keep going up. At $13.99/month, YouTube Premium is a good value if you don’t want to see ads on YouTube and care about the included YouTube Music Premium perk. However, it’s unfortunate that the cheaper YouTube Premium Lite plan that launched last year in the US and other markets doesn’t offer background play on mobile.