Google is Working On Making Chrome’s Picture-In-Picture More Useful

Multi-tasking is very important for anyone who wants to get things done faster. Sometimes you want to watch your favorite show whilst swiping through some stories or even playing your favorite puzzle on the same device. Well, Google has got you covered with their picture-in-picture for Chrome.  

Picture-in-picture (PiP) is a feature in modern video players, televisions, and operating systems. It allows two programs to be displayed simultaneously, one on a small window superimposed on a larger screen. This way, the viewer doesn’t have to switch away from the main program by playing the secondary content on the smaller screen. 

PiP has gained popularity over the years as we see web browsers incorporating the feature. Users can watch a smaller window while continuing with other tasks such as browsing through social media or even their emails or working. I really enjoy using the Android Multi window feature, which has built-in support for PiP, allowing me to watch my favorite show on Showmax whilst playing a game of Candy Crash

Chrome has decided to up the ante with the latest Chrome beta version 111 by making the browser’s PiP more useful. In the past, we’ve only been able to play videos with PiP. Google is looking at adding a floating window that will be at the top of all your windows displaying any web page of your choice. The name of this feature will be called Document Picture-in-Picture. 

There are so many ways the new feature has been made more useful, such as: 

• It now has enhanced the PiP on video players by adding custom UI, such as buttons to dislike or like videos, captions, and timelines. 
• You now can have a miniplayer for video conferencing with full controls. You can see a grid of people while accessing the controls to mute yourself and raise your hand. 
• Google also says the feature can show a playlist for your favorite tunes. 

I would really like to have a website that gives me a PiP tasklist or notepad. There’s already a Pomodoro site that already uses the PiP feature with supported browsers. The Pomodoro timer can float over all my other windows, actively helping me with timing my tasks. 

It's still unclear if many sites will be using the feature, but it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Mozilla mentioned that the PiP feature could be a venue for annoying ads and popups. Other web browsers haven’t given a clear picture of whether they will be incorporating the feature into their browsers. 

The feature will be trialed until Chrome 115, scheduled to be released in June. After the trial, the feedback received will determine the decision to move forward. Currently, this is bound to be a feature only available on Chrome and a few interested web browsers.

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