YouTube on Mobile Now Works Without Unlocking the Screen

Here’s how you can listen to music on YouTube without worrying about locking your phone. No, its not YouTube music.

You can play music on YouTube with a locked screen, you just have to figure out your way to it.

(Photo: The Quint)

Ever locked your screen while listening to a song on YouTube? We know it feels like punching yourself in the face. To get rid of this irritating drawback of listening to music on YouTube, the video streaming platform has come up with YouTube Music. YouTube Music will take on apps like Spotify and Apple Music.

While Europe on Tuesday was introduced to YouTube Music for the first time, us Indians have quite some waiting to do before we can get our hands on the music app of Google’s video platform.

But you need not worry if you’re too impatient to wait for the launch, you can still lock your Android phone while listening to music on YouTube with just a few more clicks than your traditional YouTube app.

Here’s how you can lock your Android phone screen while listening to music on YouTube:

Step 1 - Open Google Chrome on your device.

Google Chrome Homepage on Android.

Step 2 - Go to the YouTube website. If your phone always redirects you to the app, type www.youtube.com on the address bar. You will be redirected to the mobile site (m.youtube.com).

The YouTube mobile site.

Step 3 - Hit the options icon on your browser (three vertical dots).

Hit the options, the three dots on the top right corner (highlighted). 

Step 4 - Select the desktop site option, you will be redirected to the YouTube desktop website.

Select Desktop Site option (underlined in red).

Step 4 - Play whichever music video you want to listen to.

YouTube desktop site view on Android phone.

Step 5 - Now you can go back to your home screen. However, the playback might stop as soon as you do.

Step 6 - If your playback stops upon redirecting to home screen, pull down the notification bar, you’ll see the YouTube playback notification with pause/play, forward and backward button (It will show what you’re playing).

How the YouTube notification bar looks on your drop down menu.

Step 7 - Hit play

Hit play (highlighted) and enjoy your music without the interruption of screen lock.

Step 8 - Now you can go ahead an lock your screen as well, your music will not stop.

YouTube Music will offer Europeans millions of songs and videos advertising-free for a subscription of EUR 9.99 (roughly Rs. 800) a month.

The Google-owned giant said it would also have "thousands of playlists... millions of songs, albums and artist radio" - a tool than allows listeners to build radio lists around a singer or band.