Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Chrome for Android will support automatic picture-in-picture.
- Audio or video media will automatically minimize into a floating window when you switch tabs.
- You’ll be able to permit or block automatic PiP on a per-site basis.
If you’re listening to a podcast or watching a video and you decide to switch to a different tab, Chrome will minimize that media into a floating window for you. However, this feature only exists for the desktop version of the browser. But it looks like Google is working on bringing this functionality to the Android app as well.
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A recently merged Chromium commit adds a new flag for enabling automatic picture-in-picture on Android. The feature will work similarly to how it works on Chrome for desktop. For example, say that you’re on a website where a video is playing. If you switch to a different tab, instead of the video stopping, it will continue to play in a floating mini-player in one of the corners of your screen. You don’t have to hit any buttons to launch PiP, the browser will do it for you.
This is slightly different from the system-level PiP you may be used to. The system-level PiP turns your media into a floating mini-player outside of an app. This allows you to continue watching/listening as you explore, even in other apps. Meanwhile, this upcoming feature is an experience that’s contained within the Chrome app.
On the desktop version of Chrome, the browser asks if you want auto picture-in-picture enabled, blocked, or allowed for one time only. Whatever you choose, that setting will be applied specifically to that website. That means you can enable or block this feature on a per-site basis. It’s likely this will also be the case for the mobile version of Chrome.
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