How To: Get Netflix Picture in Picture Mode on Pre-iOS 9.3.2 Devices

After Apple announced Picture in Picture mode for iOS in iOS 9, it has become a extremely useful feature for those who like to multitask as they work on their iOS device. Most entertainment apps finally caught up over the following months by adding PiP support to their apps, however Netflix still didn’t offer this feature, albeit more difficult as they weren’t using the stock iOS video player. This all changed today when Netflix announced their latest app update with the addition of PiP but only for devices running the latest 9.3.2 firmware. Knowing that the PiP APIs were introduced back in 9.0, I decided to take a look and see if this version restriction can be bypassed and it can for anyone running a jailbroken device.

If you are running a jailbroken device then following these instructions should enable the feature for you without any issues, however as always follow the instructions carefully and any damage caused is entirely your responsibility. This has only been tested on iOS 9.1, but should work on any 9.x firmware.

1. Install OpenSSH or MTerminal
2. Log in or SSH into your iOS device as root (default password is alpine)
3. If you are planning to keep OpenSSH installed on your device then please change your root password, instructions on how to do so can be found here.
4. Navigate to the following directory: /System/Library/CoreServices/
5. If you are using SSH then use your preferred editor to open SystemVersion.plist, I used nano to edit the file.
6. If you are using MTerminal then you will need to install your preferred editor on Cydia.
7. Open the file and navigate down to the ProductBuildVersion key and change the string value to 13F72.
8. Go down to the Product Version key and change the string value to 9.3.2, as shown below.
   
9. Now save and exit out of the editor, uninstall OpenSSH if you don’t plan on using it again. (Note: if you are using Pangu 9.0.x Untether then it will try to uninstall this when using Cydia as it thinks the system version is in fact 9.3.2 and therefore unsupported)
10. Reboot your device, it will appear as if you have upgraded your device and ask you to log into iCloud, however everything is still in tact and you are still running the original version of the OS.
11. Ensure you are on the latest version of the Netflix app and choose a title to watch, press the home button and now you should have a PiP view of the title.