PSA: Youtube Premium Lite Available

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#3488566 7-May-2026 22:43

turtleattacks:
Interesting that Google is cracking down on Youtube Premium Family not being within same household.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1t5wcln/your_youtube_premium_family_membership_has_been/

Netflix NZ allows non-household members for $9.95 per month additional.

I thought Google allowed family in same country. Rereading I see all family members must have the same country setting and must reside in the same household. Darn it. I can see why they do that because people are reselling.

I'd like to provide ad-free for elderly-ish family members not in my household. I can't manage those people's accounts individually and they're not going to pay for it themselves. Netflix makes that easy for me with the $9.95 thing. YouTube and Google One have no equivalent.

bongojona

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#3490662 13-May-2026 21:06

forgive my ignorance, but what is the point of background play ?

if its for playing music videos in the background so you can do other things at same time, then why not just stream music?

gzt

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#3490676 13-May-2026 23:09

It is a non-feature used by Google product management to increase conversions to the paid product. If you don't buy then you can only play content when the device screen is unlocked and active and when the player is in the foreground. The non-feature and ads are removed when you pay.

I think it's pretty cool than anyone can use the service to listen to almost any popular song and album for free.

I'm guessing they figured an audio only service with audio only ads is to hard for the moment. That is the world of product management ; ).

johno1234

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#3490698 14-May-2026 07:38

If you are playing music through headphones it can be handy if you can lock your phone and stick it in your back pocket.

Behodar

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#3490701 14-May-2026 08:06

I've always wondered what it meant by "background play" because it's always worked in the background for me, without Premium. Was it really not supposed to?

Senecio

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#3490706 14-May-2026 08:30

Its a feature that the younger generation use to listen to podcast style content that is uploaded to YouTube as video content.

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johno1234

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#3490756 14-May-2026 08:38

Behodar:

I've always wondered what it meant by "background play" because it's always worked in the background for me, without Premium. Was it really not supposed to?

Can’t tell atmo as still on free trial but my recollection is that the free account cuts out.

Stu

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#3490767 14-May-2026 08:48

I believe background play with the app requires a subscription, but works fine if playing through a browser. At least on Android devices.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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Behodar

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#3490775 14-May-2026 09:05

Ah. I've always used a browser.

gzt

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#3490805 14-May-2026 10:31

Stu: I believe background play with the app requires a subscription, but works fine if playing through a browser. At least on Android devices.

I've never seen that. I'm currently without subscription, Android 16 background play in browser (Chrome, Firefox) does not work for me when locking screen or switching apps.

dafman

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#3490813 14-May-2026 11:04

gzt:
Stu: I believe background play with the app requires a subscription, but works fine if playing through a browser. At least on Android devices.

I've never seen that. I'm currently without subscription, Android 16 background play in browser (Chrome, Firefox) does not work for me when locking screen or switching apps.

Try Brave browser.

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snj

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#3491242 15-May-2026 14:59

Premium Lite became available for my normal account today, just as I was pondering being cheeky and accepting a month free on my other Google account that I use for some gaming-related e-mails.

Quinny

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#3491247 15-May-2026 15:09

snj:

Premium Lite became available for my normal account today, just as I was pondering being cheeky and accepting a month free on my other Google account that I use for some gaming-related e-mails.

Ditto finally

fearandloathing

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#3491271 15-May-2026 16:18

I’ve finally been able to downgrade as well.

rhy7s

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#3491306 15-May-2026 20:20

gzt:
Stu: I believe background play with the app requires a subscription, but works fine if playing through a browser. At least on Android devices.

I've never seen that. I'm currently without subscription, Android 16 background play in browser (Chrome, Firefox) does not work for me when locking screen or switching apps.

There is a video background play extension for Firefox on mobile https://github.com/mozilla/video-bg-play as well as SponsorBlock.

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