Xiaomi removes free YouTube background playback hack from HyperOS and MIUI

Users of YouTube Premium have one useful feature that's not present in the free tier. It lets you play videos in the background and even keep the playback going when the screen is turned off. However, Xiaomi users have been enjoying this feature for free with the game toolbox and video toolbox found in MIUI and HyperOS (Poco X6 Pro curr. $387.06 on Amazon).

The bad news is that Xiaomi has announced that the feature is being removed. Among the affected devices are the popular flagship phones, including Xiaomi 14, 13 Pro (available on Amazon), 13, and 12T. The feature is also getting removed from all the older devices running MIUI 12 and up. Check out the picture attached at the end to see whether your device is affected or not.

According to the announcement on the Mi Fans Telegram channel, it's to meet compliance requirements. In other words, Xiaomi had to remove this feature from MIUI and HyperOS because Google is cracking down on services that allow users to enjoy YouTube Premium features for free.

It seems like Google is doing whatever is possible to make users buy YouTube Premium. In case you're unaware, the subscription currently costs $13.99 per month. With that, you get some exclusive features such as offline video playback through downloads, ad-free watching, and, most notably, background video playback.