What you need to know
- Google has updated its YouTube app for iOS for the first time in two months.
- YouTube already has privacy information required by Apple, unlike most of Google's other apps.
Google has finally updated its YouTube app for iOS after nearly two months, following controversy about Apple's new privacy labels.
As reported by MacRumors:
Google today finally updated its YouTube iOS app for the first time in over two months, becoming one of the highest-profile Google apps to see an update since early December when Apple began requiring that developers disclose privacy practices for each of their apps in order to have their updates approved.
Nearly all of Google's apps have not been updated since Apple introduced new measures requiring developers to disclose what data they collect from users. Google has previously stated that apps were to be updated in January, however, this promise never materialized.
As the report notes, YouTube is also one of the few Google apps that already had the information required by Apple for its new privacy labels. Other apps like Google, Google Chrome, Gmail, and more still don't offer any of the required information.
The whole saga has been really strange, not least of all because Google had previously followed a regular update policy, pushing out new versions almost weekly.
Earlier this week, it emerged that picture in picture support for YouTube seems to be back with the latest iOS 14.5 beta. From that report:
Multiple users of the new iOS 14 beta indicate that Picture in Picture for YouTube has returned to Safari and indeed other browsers!9to5Mac's Ben Mayo noted the change early Wednesday morning stating:I dunno if fluke or what but PIP works for YouTube videos in iPhone Safari again. Not sure if YouTube stopped blocking it or it's just a bug.Whilst Picture in Picture has been limited to Safari (it doesn't work in the YouTube app), MacRumors Tim Hardwick notes the feature also works in every browser on his iPhone.
