YouTube TV's Multiview feature is reportedly rolling out to iOS devices, giving iPhone owners a new, more immersive way to watch sports.
News of this update comes from several users on the YouTubeTV subreddit who claim that they just received the option on their smartphones. One person even shared a short iPhone video of him playing four different basketball games at once; Well, one is a commercial, but you can tell it's basketball because of the ESPN banner.
We don't know all the capabilities of Multiview on YouTube for iOS. According to 9To5Google, it can be activated from the Home tab of the app, however, it “only works with select games” and does not have all the same features as the Smart TV version.
Apparently, Multiview on iOS can't display sports scores alongside a broadcast, nor does it have the last channel shortcut to jump between recently watched channels. There is a gap in performance, but regardless of what it can't do, it's still very useful to have Multiview on mobile, especially now during March Madness.
Availability
It appears this is not a limited rollout, as a company representative told Reddit users that the feature will appear in a patch that will be available on all iOS devices. You must have YouTube version 8.11 installed to see the option.
The feature is also coming to iPadOS, as another user claims to have the patch on their iPad Pro 12.9. It's true that it's difficult to watch four sports games on your iPhone since the small screen greatly reduces each window, but iPad owners should have a better viewing experience.
An Android version is apparently in the works, however, it won't be out for a while. The same representative said that the update will arrive within “the next few months” although it may arrive sooner than expected. A user claims to have received a notification after opening the YouTube app on his Android informing him about Multiview. But when they checked, he wasn't actually there.
We've reached out to Google to ask them to confirm whether the iOS version is coming to everyone or just a few. We will update this story if we learn anything new.
Until then, check out TechRadar's list of the best iPhones for 2024 if you're looking to upgrade.
