Samsung has beta-tested its Android 14-based One UI 6.0 and recently started rolling out Beta 4 to the Galaxy S23 Series. Samsung devices now allow YouTube videos to play in the background without requiring YouTube Premium subscriptions. The company continues to offer such unique features on its devices.
Samsung introduced the Screen Curtain with the One UI 6. This feature allows users to play videos in the background without keeping the screen on. This helps in saving batteries but also minimises battery consumption and heat generation. There are plenty of things that are available as add-ons on Samsung devices to further help the device extend its functionality. OneUI 6.1 is already feature-rich, and with the support of modules, you can enhance your experience.
What is a screen curtain?
This feature allows users to play media content on a black background, which helps with using less battery and doesn’t generate heat. You may find this feature quite similar to the Always-on Display, but it does keep the function active even after the screen is black, and it also doesn’t ask for a screen pin because it doesn’t time out the display. This isn’t the first time a Samsung device keeps its screen on; for functions like Samsung Dex and Phone Link, it keeps the screen black to keep the functionality active. Once the background usage ends, it goes back to normal or a lock screen.
To use YouTube Background Playback, users require YouTube Premium. Furthermore, this YouTube Premium subscription offer can be used on Samsung devices for free, even when the device is turned off. Samsung has a lot of hidden functionalities and enhancements that come with their experimental features in the Samsung Good Lock Module.
YouTube, a video streaming and sharing platform, claims to have over 2 billion monthly users and is available in 100 countries. Over 80 languages and more than 500 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Additionally, the number of YouTube Music and Premium subscribers exceeded 80 million in 2022 and is significantly increasing.
Download and install Battery Guardian.
This is Samsung’s experimental app, which brings new ideas and lets users test them ahead of Samsung integrating new features into their custom skin, One UI.
- Open the Galaxy Store and search for good guardians.
- Go to the Good Guardian download page, then click on Install.
- Once installed, look for Battery Guardian.
- Tap on Battery Guardian, and then tap on Install.
The YouTube Background Playback feature was introduced in the latest version of the Good Guardians Module. Users can update it from the Galaxy Store. If you need to learn about the Good Guardian Module, it offers some handy features like heat monitoring and battery statistics so users can extend their battery life.
A new overlay AOD screen is enabled, which keeps YouTube running in the background, even on the lock screen. It helps users preserve battery life on their smartphones, and if someone likes to use YouTube Music in the background, they can use this to listen to music even in the background.
This new feature, Screen Curtain, is useful as it allows staying open and performing tasks like playing YouTube Background Playback. The feature allows users to use Normal YouTube as well as YouTube Premium for the Background Playback feature.
Enable the Screen Curtain from the Battery Guardian.
You can use this feature to listen to podcasts, music, and other similar tasks. However, it only offers some of the features that YouTube Premium offers.
- Open the Battery Guardian from the Good Guardian.
- Choose Screen Curtain, and then choose “Add the Quick Panel button.”
- Then tap Add when Add This button pops up.
To use this feature, ensure you have downloaded the latest version of Good Guardians, Battery Guardian, and the Android 14-based One UI 6 Beta update.
You need to understand that YouTube offers YouTube and YouTube Music Background Playback even on the lock screen, but there are some limitations. Users will only have access to some of the features of YouTube Premium. The app only plays sound when playing a video with the display turned off. Video-playing apps like Unacademy, YouTube, YouTube Music, Google Meet, ByJus, and other video-streaming apps
Additionally, users have an option that helps them play media from the notification and resume playback in the tab. To do this, you need to open a second window on Samsung Internet and use it exclusively for YouTube. Also, browsers like KiwiBrowser help you run YouTube background videos on mobile devices.
How to use a screen curtain on a Galaxy device?
This feature is currently available with One UI 6 or higher with the Good Guardians module and will be released with a stable One UI 6.
- Suppose you have been playing a YouTube video, and since you don’t have YouTube Premium, quitting or locking the screen will pause the video.
- In this case, simply pull down the Quick Panel and then tap on the screen curtain.
- Then it goes into a new black-screen window. It does show the currently running application along with the battery status.
- To close the screen curtain, double tap or press the power button.
Using the screen curtain will go into low-power state mode. There are a few situations when it doesn’t work, like when it won’t work during calls or games. But if the background media content stops, it will revert to the lock screen.
The latest update to One UI 6 introduced new functionality to the device that allows users to play YouTube videos in the background. For this similar feature, YouTube requires YouTube Premium for YouTube Background Playback. You can expect new features or make existing ones compatible with the latest version of Android.
You can start using YouTube Background Playback on your Samsung device. However, it does not include any controls for YouTube videos. This new module certainly offers a background playback feature, but it only offers some features like lock-screen controls or picture-in-picture.
Samsung is one of many devices that offer such functionality. Other mobile OEMs, like Xiaomi, Infinix, Techno, Lava, and others, also offer YouTube background playback. You can also play YouTube videos in the background on Android. Open YouTube Music in Google Chrome, and then play the video on the desktop. Now minimise the browser, and from the notification, play the video, and it will continue to play in the notification alongside the media controls of the video.
