YouTube and the secret trick to listen to music with the screen off

When we want to listen to music on our mobile, the first option is usually Spotify, but YouTube is another application that most often use to listen to their favorite band or artist. The problem with this platform is that when you leave it, the video stops. However, there is a secret method that allows us to listen to music with the phone screen off.

Currently, YouTube Premium, the platform’s paid subscription service, has additional functions such as avoiding ads, both on Android and iOS, and continuing to listen to music while browsing other applications or when the screen is not turned on.

Fortunately, there is more than one method that allows us to listen to music on YouTube with the screen off of our phone without having to install applications of dubious origin.

On an iPhone

If we have an iPhone, it is possible to turn off the screen and continue listening to YouTube. This method works with Firefox and Opera Touch, although we can also try other browsers. To activate it follow these steps:

• Enter YouTube from any browser, find the chosen video and open it.
• Then switch to the desktop version of the site; from the “Options” button, located at the top right. Also, click on “Desktop Site.”
• Play the video, go back to the home screen, swipe up to see the Control Center and press the Play button to continue watching the video even if the screen is off.

From an Android phone

To apply this method you must enter the YouTube website. As it is about Android, the ideal thing is to do it from Chrome. Follow these instructions:

• Access YouTube from your mobile browser.
• Click on the icon with the three dots at the top of the screen and activate the option “desktop site”.
• Then, you must press and hold on YouTube and choose “open in a new tab”.
• When you carry out this process, YouTube will open and you just have to look for the song you want to listen to and play it.
• Above the notifications of your phone, you will see a small player that shows the video that was previously being viewed
• To start listening to the song you just have to click on the Play button.

With VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a multimedia player available for mobile devices. How to use it with YouTube? Follow these steps:

• Download VLC Media Player from Google Play.
• Once installed, open a video in the YouTube app and click on the share icon located at the top right of the player.
• In the list of applications shown choose the option play with VLC. This action will take you to the VLC application automatically.
• After this step, you must touch the icon of the three dots in the lower right part of the VLC app and select the option to play as audio
• After completing this process, you will be able to listen to the audio of the videos without having to keep your cell phone screen on all the time.

How to download YouTube video subtitles to text

The procedure is very simple and you will not require any external tool or third-party software such as YouTube Subtitle Extractor or similar. Everything is available from the YouTube page itself. To download subtitles for a specific video, follow these steps on a PC:

• Go to the page of the desired video
• Go to the three-dot menu in the upper right
• Click Open transcript (this option will only be available if the video has subtitles)
• A page will open with the video and the transcription of the subtitles on the right side
• From here you can choose to include the timestamps in your final text file. To do so, just click on the three dots next to Transcript and activate the option that appears.
• Some videos will even allow you to change the subtitle language
• To download it, just highlight all the text and paste it into any editor of your choice (it can be Notepad or Word).
• Don’t worry about the format. The text that YouTube offers does not have special characters and in the end, you will get a sufficiently readable document.
• Once the text is copied, just save it as a file and you’re done. Now you can print or read it from wherever you want.