Photo Credit: WABetaInfo
If you have ever used insanely popular messaging platform WhatsApp, you would know that it doesn't support in-app playback for YouTube videos. In order to see the videos from Google's video-sharing platform, users generally have to go outside WhatsApp by tapping the links sent to them by their friends or family. However, with the version 2.17.40 of the iPhone app, WhatsApp is now reportedly testing in-app YouTube playback support in a beta version of its app.
The support for YouTube video playback, which was discovered by WABetaInfo, is currently not available to the public widely as the feature is currently in testing phase. As per WABetaInfo report, this feature allows users to play videos from YouTube in picture-in-picture mode. Users can resize the window with a pinch or play videos in full-screen mode. If they want to browse through other messages inside the same WhatsApp chat, or hide the video on the side.
Notably, the video playback does not continue when you change the chat. There is one more caveat to the feature as it is only available for iPhone 6 and later models, presumably due the larger display size in comparison to the predecessors, the report notes. As the feature has only been spotted on the iOS, it remains to be seen if it will be making its way to other platforms soon as well.
Unless WhatsApp finds certain issues with the implementation with this feature, users can expect to see it making its way to the app soon. As playing YouTube videos outside the app has been an annoyance for so long, we will eagerly wait to see the feature roll out widely.
