KEY POINTS
- Google Chrome is introducing an automatic picture-in-picture (PiP) mode for YouTube and other videos.
- The auto PiP mode is designed to enhance multitasking. For instance, if a user is watching a YouTube tutorial and needs to switch tabs, the video will move to a corner, ensuring no disruption in the viewing experience.
- Besides the PiP feature, Google Chrome is undergoing several improvements, including a more discreet incognito mode and a consolidated “Tracking Protection” section for all privacy-related settings.
Google Chrome is getting a new feature that automatically plays YouTube and other videos in picture-in-picture mode (PiP) when you switch tabs or windows. Chrome’s new PiP feature is coming to desktops, including Windows 11, Windows 10, macOS and ChromeOS.
If you’re watching a video on Chrome and decide to hop over to another tab, the browser will automatically place your video into a handy Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode. This new feature is similar to the “Automatically turn on picture in picture for video sites” option in Microsoft Edge Canary.
In Chrome, you can turn this feature on or off via the “Site settings” section. In a Chromium bug report spotted by Windows Latest, Google noted that it is working on a new UI feature to let you choose whether they’d like this automatic PiP feature to kick in when you switch tabs or windows.
The feature comes into play for any document in PiP mode if the associated Blink functionality for AutoPiP is turned on.
“This CL adds a draft of the allow / block content setting UI for AutoPiP windows. It doesn’t try to match any UI mocks; it just adds some scaffolding to use while we build out the functionality and the UI itself,” a Google developer noted.
Chrome’s auto PiP mode may be a good feature for many users.
For example, when you’re deep into a long YouTube tutorial, you need to switch tabs to jot down some notes or pull up related content. With this feature, the video would smoothly shift to a corner, allowing you to multitask without missing out on any part of the video.
It’s all about making your browsing experience more seamless and convenient.
Chrome to get more features, including better incognito and tracking protection
Google has been working on several improvements for Chrome on Windows and other platforms.
As recently reported by us, Chrome is on a new incognito experience where the browser will try to hide your viewing of media content while in Incognito mode. This means Chrome won’t display sensitive or media content (metadata) in the operating system’s media control.
In other words, Google won’t reveal the information on the media paying in Chrome.
Another new feature is support for “Tracking Protection” in the browser. According to Chromium Gerrit, Google’s Chromium open-source project, the search engine also plans to bring all privacy and tracking-related features under one page called Tracking Protection.
Google’s updates go beyond new features as the company is also working on a new design for the browser using Material theme.
