Working on multiple tabs on Microsft Edge and want to view a video? Microsoft Edge has the solution for you with the ‘Picture in Picture (PiP)’ mode. In PiP mode, a small overlay window is launched to play the video and you can operate it independently of the browser. Now, you can watch a video while toggling through multiple tabs.

The picture in picture mode is also supported by a lot of other browsers including Chrome, and Microsoft Edge has also made it to the list. By default, you wouldn’t have many controls in the overlay window in the PiP mode except for the pause button. However, you can get all the standard options by enabling the Global Media Controls from the flags section. These controls can be accessed from the toolbar.

The ‘Picture in Picture’ mode is not yet compatible with every website but most of the popular ones support it. For this article, we will use the PiP mode to play a YouTube video.

Playing a Video in Picture in Picture Mode on Microsoft Edge

If you haven’t updated the Microsoft Edge browser, you may have to update it to use the Picture in Picture Mode. After you have updated it, follow the steps below to enable the PiP mode.

To enable the ‘Picture in Picture’ mode on Microsoft Edge, right-click on the video and select ‘Picture in picture’ from the context menu. As already mentioned above, not all websites support this mode. Also, you might not see this context menu on the first right-click. If that’s the case, right-click again on the video and this context menu will appear.

After you have selected the ‘Picture in Picture’ mode, you will see a small overlay window at the bottom-right corner playing the video. Now, the original video screen will turn black while displaying that PiP mode is enabled. You can also change the dimension of the overlay screen by holding the corner or the edges and then dragging them to either side. Dragging towards the overlay screen will decrease the size while dragging away will increase it.

This is the maximum size of the overlay screen.

You can now switch between tabs or even open another window and the overlay screen will still be visible. When you hover the cursor over the overlay screen, the ‘Pause’ and ‘Back to tab’ icon appears. The back-to-tab icon basically disables the PiP mode and closes the overlay screen.

Enabling the Global Media Controls on Microsoft Edge

Global media controls provide you the option of controlling any media that is playing on the browser. You can use them to control a YouTube video while you are working on another tab. There is also a flag to enable the Global Media Control when playing a video in ‘Picture in Picture’ mode.

To enable the ‘Global Media Controls’, enter the following in the address bar. 

edge://flags/#global-media-controls

Now, tap on the box next to the ‘Global Media Control’ flag.

You will now see three options in the drop-down menu, select ‘Enabled’ from the list.

Similarly, enable the ‘Global Media Controls Picture-in-Picture’ flag as well by clicking on the box and then selecting ‘Enable’ from the drop-down menu. This flag enables control for PiP mode. Once you have enabled both the flags, restart the browser to apply the changes.

After the browser restarts, you will now find the ‘Global Media Controls’ in the toolbar at the top. Click on the icon and you will see four options under the name of the video and the website that’s playing it. The first option is ‘Seek backward’, the second one is to pause the video, the third one is ‘Seek forward’ while the last one enables/disables the ‘Picture in Picture’ mode.

If there are two or more media playing on the browser, they will all be displayed with separate control options for each.

The PiP mode Microsoft Edge is a great way of watching a video while working simultaneously. Also, the ‘Global Media Controls’ makes it a lot easier to control the media playing on your browser.