Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- In August 2024, Google removed YouTube Picture-in-Picture (PiP) functionality from Google Messages.
- However, the latest Messages beta reveals that Google has started adding back new text strings and activity support for launching a YouTube player within messages.
- Although we managed to launch the YouTube PiP window, it remains non-functional until Google’s implementation is fully enabled.
Google has strongly refocused its efforts on the Google Messages app, and it shows. The texting app has been receiving a slew of features these past few months, and when it rains, it pours. We’ve now spotted clues indicating that Google is working on bringing back YouTube PiP support to Google Messages, a feature that was quietly and unceremoniously killed last year.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
In August 2024, Google removed YouTube Picture-in-Picture support from Google Messages. All code and text strings related to the previously enabled feature were removed. The YouTube player would no longer operate and even thumbnails were broken. All of this indicated that Google had removed the feature for good, possibly because very few people were using it or because it’s better to get users to pay for YouTube Premium, which has a PiP window that can be repositioned anywhere. Whatever the case, YouTube PiP was gone from Google Messages.
With Google Messages v20250319 beta, Google is working on bringing back YouTube PiP support. This new beta adds new strings for YouTube to the Messages app:
Code
<string name="youtube_pause">Pause</string>
<string name="youtube_pause_content_description">Pause YouTube video button</string>
<string name="youtube_play">Play</string>
<string name="youtube_play_content_description">Play YouTube video button</string>There’s also a new activity for YouTube player support:
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
Through this new activity, we managed to launch a PiP window, a feat that wasn’t possible before.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
While the PiP window has become launchable in chats, it doesn’t work as Google has seemingly not enabled it yet. Once Google flips a switch, the PiP window should support playback as usual, presuming Google still intends to ship this feature.
Did you miss YouTube PiP in Google Messages while it was gone? Do you want the feature to make a full return in functionality to the stable branch? Let us know in the comments below!
