iOS 14: Apple iPhone, iPads to finally stream 4K YouTube videos

It has also been reported that tvOS 14 will allow streaming of 4K content on YouTube.

iOS 14 (Apple)

One of the biggest issues Apple iPhone and iPad users have been facing since years is the inability to stream Google's YouTube video in 4K resolution. However, this might become a possibility later this year when Apple releases iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. There's no public announcement but an indirect confirmation comes via the iOS 14 developer beta 1, as reported by the Cult of Mac website. It has also been reported that tvOS 14 will allow streaming of 4K content on YouTube, so you can expect your Apple TV to play YouTube videos in 4K resolution as well later this year.

In case you are wondering why Apple devices were not able to stream 4K resolution till date, that's because they did not support Google's VP9 codec that is used to stream Ultra HD content on YouTube. However, iOS 14 seems to have support for this codec.

What's worth considering here is that even with VP9 codec and support to stream 4K videos, Apple iPhones won't be able to make the best out of 4K or 2K videos. This is because none of the iPhones or iPads till date have 2K or 4K resolution screens. The iPhone 11 Pro's display resolution is 2436x1125 pixels, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's resolution is 2732x2048 pixels. Since none have 4K (3840x2160 pixels) or 2K resolution, the content won't be as clear or sharp as it should be.

Second point to think about is that Google VP9 codec's inclusion in iOS 14 not just means 4K video support for YouTube, but somewhere it also hints that Apple iPhone 12 could come with 2K screen resolution so they could show at least some of that high-res goodness to users. At this point, this is just a speculation though. We can only know for sure when the new iPhones come out with iOS 14 later this year.