Reports claim YouTube no longer plays in the background on Samsung Internet and Brave, breaking a popular screen-off audio workaround.

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YouTube has disabled background playback for non-Premium users across mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge. Google confirmed this was an intentional change to enforce Premium exclusivity. Users who relied on this workaround to listen to audio with their screen off now face audio cutouts when minimizing browsers. The issue appeared about a week ago and affects millions who used this free alternative to YouTube Premium's background play feature.

YouTube background play not working on Samsung Internet for some