App to Display Subtitles and CC on iOS YouTube PiP

by Rian

The official YouTube app is mostly hit-and-miss on mobile devices. I can’t speak for all experiences, but on iOS, the YouTube app does not support subtitles or CC on PiP, or picture in picture. I had tried using YouTube Premium for this very purpose, but it was up to no avail. For the records, it is not that iOS does not support subtitles on PiP players, there are other media players that display subtitles on PiP. YouTube simply does not support it.

Vinegar is a paid app, priced at $1.99, for both iOS and macOS to turn YouTube player on web to default system player. It does have other features too, but one I do want to emphasize is its ability to bring back better, more accessible system player for PiP. Because YouTube is always changing its codes, the app can break once in a while, — that’s why the app has two extensions, use only one. But from my experience, the developer responded to the changes within few weeks. Changing the extensions are only few taps on the Safari, so it wouldn’t be much of an issue.

Personally, I think the lack of subtitles and CC support for PiP is a question of accessibility in general. There are contents that use embedded subtitles, notably ASMR, to precisely control what’s delivered in audio. Anyone should have a choice to enable subtitles in any players, and it would be especially true for users with hearing issues. I find it odd when a third party app can do it, YouTube still hasn’t fixed it after they charge $13.99 monthly.