If you use the most popular live-streaming service on an iPhone or iPad, things just got even better. YouTube TV — which boasts more than 8 million subscribers — just pushed multiview live on Apple’s mobile devices, as previously promised.
It works basically the same way it does on a television. YouTube TV picks the programs available in multiview, and you get them all at once, with audio coming from one of the shows. Tap another, and the audio switches. And just as before, you can get multiview for sports, news, business, or weather. (Though we definitely don’t recommend watching four news channels at once in an election year.) It’s just in time for March Madness, which is great, though we hope you’ll be able to pick your own games instead of just sticking with the multiple viewing options YouTube TV gives. This will be great come fall, though, when the new season of NFL Sunday Ticket takes hold.
Multiview on iPhone and iPad also allows for picture-in-picture (a feature that’s been live on iOS for a couple year snow), so you can have it open in a corner of you’re screen while you’re doing something else. That’s perhaps tolerable on an iPad, but it’s downright tiny on an iPhone. But, it works. You’ll also be able to change the stream quality if you want via the settings cog.
One feature that’s missing at launch is the ability to send those four screens to a television over AirPlay. Though if you already have a YouTube TV subscription and a TV that supports apps, there’s no real reason to do this. (We just like to flip all the switches we can.)
YouTube TV is available on pretty much any modern streaming device. Its sole base plan features more than 100 channels for $73 a month and includes unlimited recording and support for up to six profiles all attached to a single subscription. (All of those profiles will need their own Google account, though.)
