Picture-in-Picture Mode Comes to Chrome, Here’s What You Need to Know

The long-awaited picture-in-picture mode makes it to Chrome with the release of Chrome 70. Previously, you had to depend on a third-party Chrome extension to get PIP mode on Chrome. Now it’s available in Chrome official build (version 70), allowing you to pop out videos on supported websites as floating videos that will always be in view even if you are on a different browser tab or application.

Chrome isn’t the first browser to support this feature natively. Opera actually had this feature since early 2016, and Safari supports it as well. However, it’s still a welcome addition to Chrome and I am going to tell you everything you need to know about it.

To start with, Chrome PIP mode is still in an early stage and very limited in many ways. Only a few video websites support this feature, but as expected, it works perfectly fine on YouTube. Furthermore, even though it’s available in the Chrome right-click menu, but it’s still rather awkward to access it (at least on YouTube). No worries though, below I am going to tell you how you can activate Chrome PIP mode on YouTube.

Make sure Chrome is updated to version 70 (check about page) and open up a video on YouTube. Now right-click on the YouTube video and YouTube video menu will open up. To see the Chrome right-click menu, right-click again while the YouTube video menu is open and you’ll see the Chrome right-click menu. Here you can click on the “Picture in picture” option to activate PIP mode.

The floating window can be resized to a fixed maximum size and you can drag it around by holding left-click on it. From the floating window player, you can only pause/resume the video or click on the top-right X button to close the PIP mode. To perform other actions, you’ll have to access the YouTube video actual page.

In my opinion, PIP mode in Chrome is a great addition, but it’s still way behind in terms of features and supported websites. For example, Opera PIP mode supports most HTML 5 based video websites and lets you control playback, adjust volume, play the next video, and not to mention it’s much easier to activate it. Nonetheless, Chrome PIP feature is in a usable state and definitely worth trying.

What do you think about Chrome’s addition of PIP mode? Do share your thoughts in the comments below.