The Picture-in-Picture mode lets you detach video players from websites and use them separately, making it easier to multitask. While you can manually turn on this feature to use it in a lot of browsers, some browsers also allow automatic PiP. Chrome recently joined the list of browsers that support automatic PiP.

So, when you go to a website that supports automatic PiP in Chrome, it will automatically pop out a floating, resizable player when you switch to a different application or tab without requiring any user input. Automatic Picture-in-Picture is available on desktops on Chrome version 120 and later to all Google Workspace users, Individual Workspace users, and personal users.

However, everything isn't as straightforward in Chrome when it comes to automatic PiP, which has caused a lot of confusion among users.

How does automatic PiP work in Chrome? For the feature to work on a website in Google Chrome, the developers have to enable support for it in the website code. If you want to get technical, websites rely on the Document Picture-in-Picture API or the Picture-in-Picture API for <video> from Google to allow videos to automatically enter PiP mode when you switch to a different tab or application.

However, you'll find that automatic PiP can only be enabled on websites that capture the user's camera or microphone, essentially, video conferencing apps. This is the reason you'll find that automatic PiP actually does not work on most websites in Chrome, including YouTube.

Automatic PiP comes in especially handy when you are using video conferencing apps like Google Meet, allowing you to interact with other participants in a video call while simultaneously opening other windows and tabs.

In addition to a website supporting the feature, automatic Picture-in-Picture should also be enabled in settings for it to work in Chrome.

Enabling automatic Picture-in-Picture mode

Automatic Picture-in-Picture is enabled by default for users but if that's not the case, here is how you can enable it manually.

  1. If you want to enable automatic Picture-in-Picture in Chrome, open a new browser tab and go to chrome://settings/content.
  1. Scroll down and click on the 'Additional permissions' dropdown to expand it.
  1. Then scroll down and click on 'Automatic Picture-in-Picture'.
  1. Check that the 'Sites can enter picture-in-picture automatically' option is selected. If it isn't, click on it to select it.
  1. Advanced users can also control how Picture-in-Picture works by turning on experimental features. To do so, go to chrome://flags in a new tab.
  1. Search for 'picture-in-picture' in the search box at the top and you will see all controls related to it. You can then change them from their default values and enable or disable them as you like.
  1. To enable or disable a setting, click on the dropdown to its right and then select your preferred option. You can choose whether to display video heuristics, turn PiP on or off for videos, and more.

Using automatic Picture-in-Picture mode in Chrome

Once you enable automatic Picture-in-Picture, it should work without needing any further input on platforms that support it. You will need to provide permission to the web app, though.

Note: In our testing, we only found the feature to work with Google Meet at the time of this writing. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work on platforms like Zoom, Teams, Webex, etc.; more platforms will likely implement it in the future. It will also not work if you've disabled camera permission in the browser and your OS.
  1. Open a new browser tab in Chrome and sign in to your Google account.
  2. Head to the Google Meet website and start a new meeting or join a meeting as you normally do.
  3. Once your meeting starts, switch to a new tab. You will see Google Meet appear in a small Picture-in-Picture window on the bottom right automatically. But the video won't appear unless you provide permission; click on the 'Allow this time' or 'Allow on every visit' button in the pop-up as per your wish.
  1. Google Meet should now be working in Picture-in-Picture mode. In meetings with other participants, you will be able to view them in this small floating window, which you can move and resize by selecting it just like any other browser window.
  1. You will see minimal controls while using Google Meet in PiP mode, which include turning your camera and microphone on and off, raising a hand, sending a reaction, and ending the call.
  2. Switching back to the main Google Meet tab will automatically close the Picture-in-Picture window and the video call will continue in the main window. You can also switch to the main tab by clicking on the 'Back to Tab' icon from the PiP window.

Things to know

  • As mentioned before, automatic Picture-in-Picture mode will only work on websites on which developers have provided support for it in their code. This also means that even if you disable PiP on one website manually, it may still be enabled on other websites.
  • You may also see certain special controls or buttons on some web apps when running in PiP mode, which has been possible due to the Document Picture-in-Picture API that Google released in Feb 2023.
  • Chrome's media controller also works with websites that support automatic PiP, so you can activate it manually if you don't want it to turn on automatically.