How to Enable Picture in Picture in Chrome

WhatsApp recently included the picture-in-picture mode, so you don't have to leave the app to watch a video. This is something that you can also do in Chrome and watch a video without having to have the YouTube tab open.

There are extensions you can try to get the picture-in-picture mode in Chrome. But, if the last thing you want to do is install yet another extension, there is now a way around that, and it's only a few clicks away.

Make Sure Chrome Is Updated

For Chrome's integrated picture-in-picture to work, you need to run on the latest version of the browser. Checking for the update is an easy task. Click on the three vertical dots at the top-right of the browser and place the cursor over the help option.

When the new window appears, click on the "About Google Chrome" option. Chrome will start looking for updates automatically. If it's up to date, it will say just that, and if there is an update pending, it will begin to download it without you having to do anything.

How to Access Chrome's Picture-in-Picture Mode

Before you open the video you want to use in this mode, keep in mind that the video needs to be delivered in HTML5. Also, not every video will work with the feature, but the feature shouldn't fail when using a YouTube Video or Dailymotion.

Choose the video you want to see in picture-in-picture, and right-click on it. The first time you do this, YouTube's settings will appear. Right-click once again without moving the cursor, and the "Picture in picture" option should be right below the "Copy video address" option.

After clicking on the option, the YouTube video you right-clicked on will turn black. It will indicate that you are watching the video in picture-in-picture mode. The video will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your display.

The pop-up window won't have any on-screen controls to do things such as pause. You'll either need to use blacked-out YouTube or the keyboard shortcuts you use for controling a video on YouTube. If you can't remember the shortcuts, here are a few of them:

• Pause – Spacebar
• Go Back Five Seconds – Left arrow
• Go Forward five seconds – Right arrow
• Beginning of Video – Home
• Restart the video – Zeron but not from the keypad number
• Mute – M

How to Modify the Picture-in-Picture Window

When the window first appears, it's a bit small. To either make it even smaller or bigger, place the cursor on the edge of the video. When correctly positioned, the cursor will turn into two arrows in one. Click and drag the window to the size you want and let go.

You can move the window to any area of your display by clicking anywhere on the window. When you move the cursor out of the window, the play will disappear, but it will return once you place the cursor back in the window.

Conclusion

It would be even better if you could see the option to control the video directly from the pic-pic-pin window. The pic-in-pic mode will demand a little bit more from your CPU, but if you have a modern computer, it should work fine. At least there is no need to install any extension to use the feature.

What are your thoughts on picture-in-picture mode?

Just a simple guy that can't enough of Technology in general and is always surrounded by at least one Android and iOS device. I'm a Pizza addict as well.

@bradyjgavin
Sep 5, 2019, 9:00 am EST | 1 min read

The Picture-in-Picture (PiP) extension for Google Chrome lets you watch videos on the internet in PiP mode. However, if you want to watch a video from your local drive, you can use Chrome to play it in a PiP window.

For this guide, you can use either the built-in PiP mode or the official Chrome extension. If you haven't already, head over to the Chrome web store and install the PiP extension to continue.

Note: Not all video file formats are supported for playback in Google Chrome. However, Chrome supports WebM and MP4 formats natively, though some MP4 files may fail to open due to different types of codecs.

For this guide, we'll be using Windows as the operating system. The process should work identically on all desktop platforms including macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS.

For Google's PiP extension to work with files stored locally on your computer, you have to grant permission to the extension to access a file's URL. Right-click the extension's icon located in the toolbar and then select "Manage Extensions."

Scroll down until you see "Allow Access to File URLs" and toggle the switch to the "On" position.

Next, navigate to the folder of the video you want to watch in Chrome. Right-click the video, point to "Open With," and then click "Google Chrome."

If you don't see Chrome as a suggestion, click "Choose Another App" from the context menu that opens. From the list of apps, select "Google Chrome" and then click "OK."

Alternatively, you can drag the video file directly into a new tab and Chrome will open the video automatically.

After the video opens, click on the PiP extension icon, and the video will pop out on top of all other windows in a mini-player.

If you aren't using the Chrome extension and instead want to use the built-in PiP feature, right-click the video, and then click "Picture in Picture."

Just as with any other video in PiP mode, you can move the player by dragging it anywhere on the screen.

After you finish the video, either click the "X" in the mini-player window to close it or select the box and arrow icon at the bottom left of the player to return to the tab where the video was playing.

Picture-in-picture is often abbreviated as PIP. We can watch the video in a small floating window outside the browser and continue to perform other tasks while the video is playing.
The best thing is that chromium has built-in picture-in-picture, we can easily use the Picture-in-picture mode on a chromium-based browser, like Google Chrome, Microsoft New Edge, and Mozilla Firefox, no need to install a third-party extension.

How to use picture-in-picture mode on a chromium-based browser

To use picture-in-picture mode on a chromium-based browser, please make sure the browser is the latest version, and follow these steps.
1. Open a YouTube video on a Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or other chromium-based browsers.
2. Right-click on the video twice and select the option Picture in Picture.
In the first click, you will see some options to loop the video, copy URL, etc. In the second click, you should see an option called Picture in Picture.

3. The video will start playing in PIP mode on the bottom right corner of the screen.
You can drag the floating window anywhere and resize it. Even if you minimize the browser window, it will keep playing.

How to enable the Global Media Control panel

Using the Global Media Control panel, you can easily control the play, pause, and skip of the video in the browser.

Google Chrome
Step 1. Open the Experiments panel of Google Chrome
Please launch the latest version of Google Chrome, type the following command in the address bar, and press Enter.

Step 2. Enable Global Media Controls Picture-in-Picture and Global Media Controls
Please type the keywords "global" in the search box, this can help you quickly locate the Global Media Controls Picture-in-Picture and Global Media Controls.

Step 3. Relaunch Google Chrome
After select Enabled, please relaunch Google Chrome to take effect the changes.
When you open a YouTube video, you will see a new icon behind the address bar, which is the "Global Media Control" panel.

Microsoft Edge
This is Microsoft New Edge based on chromium, not the legacy one. The operation is similar to Chrome, but with some differences.
Step 1. Open the Experiments panel of Edge
Please launch the Microsoft Edge, type the following command in the address bar, and press Enter.

Step 2. Enable Global Media Controls Picture-in-Picture and Global Media Controls
Please type the keywords "global" in the search box, this can help you quickly locate the Global Media Controls Picture-in-Picture and Global Media Controls.

Step 3. Relaunch Edge
After select Enabled, please relaunch Edge to take effect the changes.
When you open a YouTube video, you will see a new icon behind the address bar, which is the "Global Media Control" panel.

WHY CHOOSE WISECLEANER?

Try before you buy with a free trial – and even after your purchase, you're still covered by our 60-day, no-risk guarantee.

Secure Online Payment

We value your privacy and protect your financial and personal data, support several safe methods of payment.

7 X 24 SUPPORT SERVICE

Knowledgeable representatives available to assist you through email response within 24 hours.

PIP also known, as Picture in Picture mode is an exciting feature in Google Chrome browser. It allows users to watch online videos in a resizable window on top of other tabs using PIP Web API. Following some simple steps can help you in enjoying your favorite YouTube movies or videos while multitasking other activities.

Enabling PIP mode Chrome depends on two factors – website support and Chrome version you use.

Default PIP Mode in Version 70+

Google introduced this feature long time back on Android but make it official on desktop version from version 70. You can now have this feature in Google Chrome browser without any extensions. Though Chrome will support this feature by default, it depends on the website developers to make use of this. This essentially means you will not be able to use PIP mode unless the website supports it.

We believe more developers will adopt this to make use of growing video trending.

Popular sites like YouTube already supports the PIP mode in Google Chrome. Open your favorite video and right click on it. You will see the context menu like below.

First Right Click Context Menu

Immediately again press right click to see another context menu like below.

Choose Picture in Picture option. Now you will see the video separated from the payer and floats on the screen.

• The video will be on top all windows of Chrome and other applications. This means you can type on Word document while seeing the video in PIP mode.
• The Chrome tab that plays the video will show an icon indicating PIP mode is enabled on that tab.
• Closing the tab will also close the video.
• You can resize the video, pause or close it to view back on the main player.
• The main player will show, "The video is playing in picture-in-picture mode" when you enabled PIP mode.

PIP Mode in YouTube

For Unsupported Websites

As mentioned, website developers need to use the PIP API to enable the floating video option. However, you can use the plugin from the Google developer to view the currently playing video in Chrome in PIP mode. Go to Chrome web store and add the Picture-in-Picture extension to your browser.

Add PIP Extension to Chrome

It will add an icon next to the address bar like many other extensions.

PIP Extension

Open a website that plays a video. Click on the extension icon to move the video to PIP mode.

PIP Mode Using Chrome Extension

You can view the demo of the extension here by using the toggle "Picture-in-Picture" button.

For Chrome Version 68 and 69

Earlier Chrome version of 68 or 69 uses PIP mode as an experimental feature. You need to enable the flags "chrome://flags/#enable-picture-in-picture" and "chrome://flags/#enable-surfaces-for-videos" and use an extension from GitHub.

Now, the same GitHub extension is available in Chrome store as an official Chrome extension. So you don't need to play around the flags, simply download and install the extension to enjoy the PIP mode feature as explained above.

How to use PIP mode in Android devices?

The approach to enable PIP mode in Android powered smartphones and tablets is almost same as that of desktop version of Google Chrome. Just launch the Chrome application and play your video in full screen. Afterwards, simply press home button and the video will automatically resize to for your requirements.

Summary

Picture in Picture mode is undoubtedly useful feature to enjoy the videos while doing some other tasks. So, enable the option using the extension for now and enjoy the videos. We are sure, later all websites will start using PIP API and offer this function.

The Picture-in-Picture mode could be the handiest features that came to the PCs and smartphones, which allows resizing a video window to overlay other apps. So you can browse or do other tasks while watching the videos from online, including Youtube and Facebook. The PiP is already popular on Android smartphones and became globally supportive after the introduction of Android Oreo. Now, you can enable Picture-in-Picture mode in Google Chrome in PC too.

How to enable Picture-in-Picture mode in Google Chrome

Google Chrome comes with a load of natively added features. Most of them are under the beta testing, so may not be stable. These unstable features are hidden in the browser, so you cannot identify them at a glance. So you have to enable several experimental features to get the Picture-in-Picture mode n Chrome browser on your PC.

Google Chrome PiP Mode in PC

The following methods work with normal chrome, but better to go with the "Chrome Canary," the Beta testing version of the Google Chrome for better results.

• Now visit the following pages and enable the corresponding features:
  • Type chrome://flags/ in the URL followed by the text with #.
    • #enable-experimental-web-platform-features
    • #enable-surfaces-for-videos
    • #enable-picture-in-picture
• After enabling each feature, you must have to restart the browser. So do this when you are not working with the Chrome.
• Now download and extract this Zip file to your device.
• Come back to Google Chrome and go to chrome://extensions.
• Toggle on the developer mode from the top right corner.
• Now Click on "Load Unpacked" and select the "src" folder from extracted directory.

Now, you are all set, and you can use the PiP Mode anytime using the Chrome browser. The videos can also float over other apps in the System.

Use Chrome PiP Mode on Android

Recently released versions of Google's Android Operating System versions come with the native support for the Picture-in-Picture mode. Android Nougat comes with the PiP mode for some apps, which depended on the developers. Mostly, the Split-screen feature was more popular until the Nougat. Now with Android 8.0 Oreo, everyone or any app can be put into PiP Mode to float over any other app, so is Chrome.

Here is how you can enable the Picture-in-Picture from Google Chrome easily, on Android Oreo running smartphones.

• Open Google Chrome on your smartphone.
• Go to Youtube or any video watching platforms and play the video.
• Now, put the video in full-screen mode by tapping the icon at Web Player frame.
• While the video is playing, tap the home button of your smartphone. Now, the video will shrink and float at the top of your display.
• If you want to resume, you can tap on the Headphone icon.
• Select the floating window and tap to return to full-screen Chrome browser. You can exit the PiP mode by dragging down the window too.

Please note that the above method to enable Picture-in-Picture mode in Google Chrome runs only for Android Oreo and later.

Google Chrome allows using the picture in picture mode for videos you watch. So, in this post, I will be showing you, how you can enable it right now.

Picture in picture mode is a feature which allows you to watch online videos in a resizeable and small floating window. The picture in picture mode feature started being famous when it was first introduced on Android and iOS operating systems.

Well, there are tons of different spots to watch videos online. However, YouTube is arguably the first place, we all visit almost every day. Now YouTube website has a picture in picture mode feature. But, it is restricted to the only YouTube tab in Google Chrome browser. If you will switch between tabs, you will not be able to watch the video.

About Picture in Picture Mode

Google Chome's picture in picture mode feature is not yet available by default. It is in an experimental stage, right now. And, luckily, you can enable this feature on Google Chrome running on Windows, Mac or Linux. So, no matter any operating system is installed on your machine, it would work.

So, when you will enable the feature, it allows to watch video on any window you will open on your computer. The video floating window will appear in the small resizeable box that you can move anywhere on your computer screen and resize it.

Well, from my personal experience, the feature is still passing through the development phase. So, it won't support all websites which offer video content. Since YouTube is arguably the best video hub nowadays, we will consider it in this post.

We will go through proper defined steps on how to enable picture in picture mode in Google Chrome and then how you can watch YouTube videos in the PiP window.

How to Enable Picture in Picture Mode in Google Chrome

Google allows chrome users to try out different experimental features if they want to. And they call it 'flags'. Since the picture in picture mode is also one of their experimental features, you will have to enable it manually. In technical term, you will have to enable flags.

As I have mentioned earlier, the feature works on every platform including Windows, Mac, and Linux. So, you can pick up the same route and enable PiP mode feature in Google Chrome.

The first, head over to the following address. You will get a text highlighted in yellow color. Simply, change the setting from 'Default' to 'Enabled'.

Now, second, go on the following address and do the same. Change the setting from 'Default' to 'Enabled'.

When you will enable it, you will see a big 'blue button that says to relaunch' the Google Chrome, so, please click on it. There is nothing to worry about, it won't close the tabs.

Now, that you have enabled, two mentioned flags, you should get the following listing with the 'Enabled' sitting next to their name.

How to Watch YouTube Videos Using Picture in Picture Mode Feature

Now, YouTube has its own picture in picture mode feature. But, the feature only allows you to watch video while surfing on YouTube website. If you will switch to another tab in Google Chrome or open any window on your computer, the video can't be watched on screen.

Google Chrome feature will allow you to watch videos in a resizeable small window that you can place anywhere on the screen and watch the video.

To enable it, simply go on any YouTube video (I have attached one below if you are feeling lazy) and do double right-click anywhere on the video. You will see 'Picture-in-Picture Mode feature there. When you will click on it, the video will pop-up in a small floating window.

You can resize it and keep it anywhere on your computer screen. Further, you can watch it over any window you want while doing another work. Also, you can pose the video at the same time and play through the pop-up window.

However, there is only one major drawback. The floating window doesn't show the progress bar. So, you won't be able to skip the video at anytime you want.

Points to Remember

• PiP mode cannot play more than one video in a floating window.
• If you will close the main video tab then floating window will be closed.
• If you will play video from playlist then the next video will start playing automatically.
• You cannot skip the video. There is no progress bar.

My Thoughts

Picture in picture mode in Google Chrome is a very handy way to watch videos while doing another work. I wish, it will support further websites like Netflix or Amazon Prime videos, I can even watch a bit of show while doing work.

Suggestion

Join our Telegram channel for instant tech updates and smartphone news. Also, you can follow us on our Facebook page.

In this fast-paced world, multitasking experience is central both in the real life and in the computer world. The potential of doing various tasks simultaneously is one of the most desiderated in order to accomplish the tasks in the limited amount of time. Since ages, it has been a fantasy of many techno users to have a multi-window mode in the desktop system that would let the user multitask, for instance watching a video while navigating between apps.

Related Articles

This very advantage of multitasking is included in the mode called Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode on Google Chrome and this feature was introduced earlier in smartphone sector for Android Oreo that would allow its users to watch a video in a small window. This small window playing your favorite video could be dragged around the screen, pinned to the screen corner while navigating between apps or browsing the content on the main screen. This Chrome browser PiP feature was well received by the smartphone users and ever since its launch, PiP feature is pretty sought after on laptops and desktops.

Well, the most sought-after feature is now being added to the Google Chrome desktop version. Google has officially launched the specific flags in Google Chrome to support PiP. In order to avail the feature, you need to use an extension. In this segment, we will explain step by step on how to enable and use Picture-in-Picture(PiP) mode on Google Chrome desktop.

Also Read: Best Apps that Support Android O's Picture-in-Picture Mode

In order to have a desktop with PiP mode enabled, you need to first install the Google Chrome Canary on your Windows device. Download it here.

Once installed, you need to enable some experimental features.

To enable them, go to the URL and type Chrome://flags. Now enable the following flags by selecting the Enabled option from the menu for each of the flags:

#enable-experimental-web-platform-features
#enable-surfaces-for-videos
#enable-picture-in-picture

Restart Google Chrome Canary by clicking on "Relaunch Now" button.

Now download and extract the Picture-in-Picture extension.zip files from the Github package and extract the files to any folder of your device.

Now open Google Chrome Canary and click on the URL to type "chrome://extensions"

In the top right corner of the page, toggle the Developer mode button to "On".

Search and locate Load unpacked option in the top left corner of the page and click on it.

In the new window that appears, browse for the folder named src and select the src folder in the unzipped Github file.

Click on Ok to enable the Picture-in-Picture mode extension. This will load thePiP extension to Chrome and will add the PiP icon to the Chrome toolbar near the address bar.

That's all. With PiP mode enabled in desktop, you can watch a video in the small window popped out while you browse through multiple windows with not just restricted to Chrome.

This post first appeared on Technology Personalized – Tech News, Reviews, Anal, please read the originial post: here

Sadly, Google has not yet implemented Picture-in-Picture support in Chrome which is a bit disappointing. On the bright side, the company is working on bringing this feature to its browser across all platforms, and while the feature is not yet ready for primetime, you can still enable it if you wish to.

You will have to install the Canary build of Chrome for this which comes with its own share of bugs and issues, but then you are also getting the bleeding edge version of Chrome that is available. Follow the steps below to know how you can enable Picture-in-Picture in Chrome on your Mac.

How to Enable Picture-in-Picture in Google Chrome

Step 1: Download and install the latest Chrome Canary build for Mac from here.

Step 2: With the browser downloaded and installed, you now need to enable some experimental flags to enable Picture-in-Picture.

Step 3: Paste the followings flags one by one in the URL bar and enable them. Flag 1:

This flag will enable the experimental Web Platform features that are still in development. Flag 2:

Allows compositing onto a Surface instead of a VideoLayer. This is required for PiP feature to work. Flag 3:

This flag will finally enable the Picture-in-Picture feature for the browser. With all the flags enabled, restart Chrome for the changes to take effect.

Step 4: You are not done yet. Now, head over to GitHub and download this Chrome extension. Now, head over to the Chrome extension page by using the below flag and enable the Developer mode option.

Now, point the Finder window to the folder where you extracted the contents from the PiP extension zip file. Now, you can playback any video in Picture-in-Picture mode by clicking the PiP extension button right beside the URL bar anytime a video is playing in a tab. The player will then automatically resize to the bottom corner of the display.

In some popular video sites like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, the PiP player should automatically work, though it did not work for me on YouTube. Since the Picture-in-Picture feature is under development, it has its own share of issues right now. The biggest deal breaker right now perhaps is that only the first video is played back in Picture-in-Picture mode.

All videos after that are played back in the main browser window. You also cannot navigate away from the main video page as the video will otherwise stop playing.

The PiP player in itself is also limited as it cannot be resized or moved around which is a major bummer. However, as the feature is still under development, Google will address these issues and fix them before releasing Picture-in-Picture to the stable build of Chrome.

Google is also making a PiP API available to developers so that they can prepare the video player and content on their site to take advantage of this feature when it formally launches down the line. Right now, Google is still testing Picture-in-Picture as an experiment so this feature is going to be a part of Chrome Canary until August 30, 2018. After this, the feature will graduate to become a part of Chrome 68 Beta before possibly making its way to the stable release of Chrome 69.

Want to watch YouTube, Netflix, and other video services in Picture-in-Picture mode? Here's how to use the browser feature in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Sometimes, you just want to watch a little Netflix while you trudge through spreadsheets on your laptop. If you don't have enough room on your screen for work and TV, though, you can use picture-in-picture to overlay a small video on top of your browser—whether it's Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.

Sure, you could just drag out a tab and resize it to fit your needs, but picture-in-picture will always stay on top of your other windows, even when you're doing something else. This feature makes it a bit easier to manage if you have limited screen real estate. Plus, it's super fast to invoke when you need it. Here's how to use it in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Enable Picture-in-Picture in Google Chrome

Google has an early version of picture-in-picture built into its Chrome browser. When playing a video, right-click on it—you may need to right-click twice on certain sites, like YouTube—and select "Picture in Picture" from the menu. The video will pop out, overlaid atop your browser window, and you can click and drag from the corners to resize it.

This feature doesn't work on every site, and it doesn't yet work on Chromebooks. I couldn't get it working on Netflix, Hulu, or HBO, for example. Thankfully, you can grab Google's official Picture-in-Picture Chrome extension, which has much wider compatibility. After installing, visit a video and click the picture-in-picture button that appears in your toolbar (or press Alt+P on your keyboard). Easy as pie.

Android devices can use Chrome's Picture-in-Picture capabilities by tapping the App Overview button. The video you are watching in Chrome (or any video app) will be minimized into the corner of the screen.

Enable Picture-in-Picture in Firefox

Firefox's picture-in-picture mode is a new feature built into the browser, and it works well with all video sites. When watching a video, you'll see a small blue button overlaid on the right side of the video. Click on it, and the video should pop right out.

You can resize it, drag it around, or pop it back into the browser with the click of a button. (You can also press Ctrl+Shift+] on your keyboard to pop it out, if you want.) If you aren't using picture-in-picture and the blue button is too distracting, you can right-click on it to disable it on that video, or disable it permanently by heading to Options > Browsing.

Note that this feature was initially only released on the Windows version of Firefox, but will be added to macOS and Linux with version 72. The feature does not currently work on mobile devices.

Enable Picture-in-Picture in Safari

If you're a Mac user browsing in Safari, you can enable picture-in-picture for a number of sites—it's just a bit hidden. Some sites let you right-click the video player and choose picture-in-picture from the menu, but for the ones that don't, right-click on the blue speaker icon that appears in Safari's address bar. From there you can enter picture-in-picture mode.

You can move and resize the window; however, unlike other browsers, Safari doesn't let you move the video anywhere. You can only place it in one of the four corners of your screen. It's not ideal, but it does the trick in a pinch.

The iPad has some multitasking Picture-in-Picture capabilities with both Safari and Chrome, but the iPhone does not.

How to Enable Picture in Picture in Chrome

Source: https://sportsclinictampico.com/planning/how-to-use-google-chrome-s-picture-in-picture-mode/

Share this post