Google is working on making Chrome’s picture-in-picture more useful

Gabbie Odonkor

To begin, the most recent Chrome’s beta, version 111, includes a trial for a feature that could significantly improve the browser’s picture-in-picture feature. Instead of just playing videos, Google is considering letting it display virtually any web content in a floating window that stays on top of all your other windows.

Furthermore, there are a variety of applications for this feature, known as Document Picture-in-Picture. Some of Google’s examples are mostly just variations on how picture-in-picture already works, such as video players with custom UI (such as buttons to like or dislike a video, a timeline, or captions), or a miniplayer for video conferences that lets you see a grid of people and access controls to them.

However, it’s simple to see whole applets that make use of the API as well; a pomodoro website already does so with supported browsers, and I’d definitely use a website that provided me with a picture-in-picture notepad or task list. Google adds that the feature might be used to display something like a playlist of your music.

According to the Chrome Platform Status tracker, the feature will be trialed until Chrome 115, which will likely release sometime in June. After that, developers will probably consider any feedback they receive on the feature, and decide how to move forward.If you want to turn on support for the feature, you can enable its flag by pasting chrome://flags/#document-picture-in-picture-api into your URL bar, and choosing enabled from the drop-down menu. At this point there probably won’t be a ton of sites that support it, but you may come across some.

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By Gabbie Odonkor Founder
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Gabriel Djabatey Odonkor , known professionally as Gabbie Odonkor, is a Ghanaian blogger, freelance journalist, and reporter.
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