Unable to watch Netflix in a picture-in-picture mode on iPhone

I finally figured it out and it is totally unintuitive. There is no icon to tap on to do this.

When you are watching a video, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and the video will go into PIP mode.

I just confirmed it.

Changed plans from "Standard with ads" to "Standard" and it instantly started working on iPhone

Incredible Netflix doing this.

If there are ads, they want us to see them and not put them in a PiP and do something else. wow

tabathay2k wrote:

FYI It seems like the Netflix basic plan with advertisements does not allow for PIP.

I never thought of that. My plan is one of the upgraded plans.

I’m also replying to confirm I had this issue. Was on basic plan with Netflix (ads), just changed it to the $15 plan (from looking at these replies) and it worked immediately. WTH NETFLIX!!???!!?

FYI It seems like the Netflix basic plan with advertisements does not allow for PIP.

That is some dirty move from Netflix. They don’t even mention that the 'standard with ads' plan does not allow Picture in Picture. The constant price hikes and the degradation of the cheaper plans have me considering just cancelling all together.

Please contact Netflix.

Currently, the Apple TV app has this feature for sure.

If your video player app (YouTube) doesn’t support PIP right now, then you may have to wait for the developer to update the app compatible with iOS 14 with PiP.

Alternatively, you may go to youtube.com in Safari, play a video, and make it full screen. Now you can select the newly-added PIP button on an iPhone running iOS 14, and the video will pop out from the page. You can change tabs or navigate to different apps, and the video will keep running in the PIP.

See the pic below, a snapshot was taken on iPhone SE 1st Gen iOS 14.0.1

How do you get PIP to work with basic plan for Netflix? Netflix said I had to upgrade

I just thought about this again, and maybe I’m describing the process incorrectly. I have an iPhone XR and it looks like you have an iPhone 8 so I’m not sure it works the same way on both models.

When I start a show in the Netflix app, it goes into landscape mode and plays that way automatically. When I say swipe up from the bottom of the screen, I am talking about the bottom in landscape mode, not the bottom in Portrait mode. When I swipe up, it is not a swipe up all the way off the screen. It’s a swipe about two thirds of the way up the screen and then I let go.

Jayfork wrote:

Yeah I understand what you mean it just doesn’t work like that for me. It just brings up the menu with the volume/brightness etc on it. I tried calling Netflix and the tech support lady, didn’t understand the concept of Picture in Picture and then tried to convince me that it’s not possible with Netflix at all. So I honestly just dgaf anymore I cancelled my subscription anyway. But thanks for trying

If you’re getting the menu with the volume/brightness etc on it, that’s the Control Center. That you get from swiping from the top of the screen, not the bottom. What you need to do is open Netflix, start watching something, when you are watching it you swipe from the bottom like you are going to the Home Screen. This should automatically open up the window for you to watch it when your phone is searching for or opening other apps. Just swipe, don’t swipe to the middle and pause as this will bring up the switcher which doesn’t do what you are looking for. You need to take your phone to the Home Screen without stopping or pausing the video.

It won’t work with basic. No matter what you do. It automatically works when you choose the $15 plan or higher. I tried everything, but upgraded and it worked the second I swiped up on my screen

EXACTLY! I’ve been sharing accounts with family and have just now decided to get mine. I opted for the Basic plan (wt ads, I don’t care..have time to make a bathroom or snack run) BUT I realized some shows are now missing, and my PiP won't work! By the way, this is not stated anywhere in their contract. C’mon Netflix, that’s a lowball…

I think Apple should push back. 1-It’s not the same with Google Play; 2-Tgey messing with Apple’s brand

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help. I wanted to show you a couple of screenshots of what I can do on my phone. You can’t see the image on the one screenshot. I think that is a Netflix thing that disallows the image being captured. This is from the Tom Hanks movie, A Man Called Otto. You can see the closed captioning here.

This shows the video is playing PIP.