If you come across a YouTube video that you just want to listen to, here’s how to disable the video to save your data.
YouTube, music videos, TED Talks, etc. It’s full of videos that you really only need to hear the sound of. However, the YouTube iOS app does not allow you to play videos with the screen off, like me. I discovered this the hard way in the past.
When you start playing a YouTube video and only want to listen to the audio, you may have gone to turn off the screen, just for the YouTube app to automatically pause the video until you open it again.
This is really frustrating, but considering that most other video streaming apps behave the same way, we’re not too surprised. But YouTube is an app where there are a lot of situations where I prefer to just listen to the audio without needing the video to play it. Fortunately, there are a few options you can take advantage of to do just that.
YouTube in Safari
Perhaps the easiest way to “listen” to YouTube videos without having to install other apps to assist the process is to access YouTube via the Safari mobile web browser. Follow these simple steps to listen to YouTube videos while still locking your iPhone screen.
This isn’t the fastest or easiest way to play YouTube videos with the screen off, but it’s the best way without having to install another app. However, if you don’t mind another app on your home screen, here are a few apps we recommend. These apps make it much easier to just listen to the audio of YouTube videos.
music
Probably one of the most popular apps to “listen” to YouTube videos, music. The app is essentially like a music streaming service, relying only on YouTube’s vast video collection as its library of choice.
You can also create custom playlists in the app and even use Musi over AirPlay.
While the app mainly focuses on music, you can still use it to play audio from YouTube video podcasts and even TED Talks, making it an even more useful app than it might seem at first glance.
MxTube
If you want to be able to “listen” to YouTube videos but still want all the features of the YouTube app and more, MxTube a try.
MxTube has all the features of the YouTube app and then some. It comes with the ability to listen to YouTube videos in the background while your iPhone is locked, but you can also do things like create custom playlists, manually set video quality, enable subtitles, and access advanced search where you can search. especially for a video, channel or playlist.
Jasmine
From the makers of the popular Reddit iPhone app Alien Blue, there’s another YouTube client named. Jasmine. Its design is a bit more elaborate than MxTube and includes some nifty features including night mode and full support for managing playlists. It also has parental control features if you have kids who use your iPhone frequently.
Its feature list isn’t as exhaustive as MxTube, but Jasmine packs some unique features that make it an app worth having in your Entertainment folder on your home screen, and its UI is as close as you can get to it. the real YouTube app, so if you like consistency, Jasmine is a good app to have.
