Chrome Beta for Android brings YouTube playback in the background

Over the weekend, Google rolled out a new beta version of Chrome for Android (version 54), which adds a long-requested feature in the form of background playback for YouTube videos. Yes, this means that you can finally listen to your YouTube playlists in the background while using other apps, or even when your device is locked.

In order to use the new feature, you need to make sure that YouTube video playback is handled by Chrome, and not by the stand-alone YouTube app. To do this, go to Settings > Apps> Chrome Beta, tap on “Open by default”, and select “Clear Defaults”. Next time you open a YouTube link in Chrome, you should receive a prompt asking which app to use for video playback; select Chrome Beta.

Once your video starts playing, minimize Chrome, pull down the notification menu, and you will see a new notification from YouTube with a “Play” button on it, similar to the Google Play Music one, but without the “Forward” the “Rewind” buttons. You can stop and resume the video playback from there at any time. The same notification will be present on the lock screen as well. Neat!

Another change in Google Chrome for Android beta 54 is the revamped homepage. Bookmarks and Recent Tabs have now been moved to the drop-down menu on the top right, while the homepage shows only a search bar with frequently visited pages underneath. Scrolling the home page reveals recommended picks from Google.