If you’re using the YouTube player app in Android, then you already know that it’s almost impossible for you to load or play a video in the background. So if you happen to be in the middle of watching a video and then a Facebook message pops up, the video will be automatically paused as you switch screens to perform another task.

Now, what if you want to continue loading the video as you perform other tasks on Android? Well, in that case, there are a couple of workarounds that won’t require you to do complicated stuffs like rooting your phone.

How to enable background play for YouTube videos in Android

Option 1 – Use a floating video player

Did you know that there other apps that lets you watch YouTube videos? As for a floating YouTube player, it lets you watch any video from YouTube in a floating window. This allows you to multitask without the need to stop or pause the video that you’re currently watching. It is probably the simplest trick that you can do since all you need is to install a free app from the Play Store.

Speaking of which, we’ve already covered one app that does the trick. Just click here to learn more about it.

Option 2 – Use MX Player

MX Player is often used to play local media files but it can also be used to play network streams. What’s great about it is that it offers the option to play any media file in the background.

Speaking of which, you need to learn how to use the “network stream” option in MX Player first. Click here to learn how to stream videos from YouTube using MX Player.

After which, you also need to learn how to enable the background playback option in MX Player. Click here to read the guide.

Just keep in mind that you can’t directly use a YouTube URL for network streams so it’s a bit of a hassle especially if you want to play multiple videos.

Of course, if the above options don’t work for you, then you may want to consider rooting your phone so that you can install the YouTube Background Playback module for the Xposed framework.