YouTube Testing Picture-in-Picture Mode for Desktop Site: Report

YouTube is reportedly testing a new feature called picture-in-picture its desktop site. With PiP mode, YouTube users will be able to browse the site while watching a video, by minimising it to a floating window. It lets the user do other things on the website such as scrolling through the feed or look for other videos from the search bar. This YouTube video feature may seem familiar, as this popular functionality is already present in the YouTube app on Android and iOS.

As per a report in 9to5Google, the PiP feature is available on both Chrome and Safari browsers for some users. In this feature, when a video is played and the user clicks anywhere on the screen, that video player will be reduced to a "sizeable" floating window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. However, it notes that the feature might be restricted to YouTube Red subscribers.

According to the report, users will be able to play/pause, replay, or watch the next clip, with the succeeding clips organised as an overlay - all within the floating window. It adds that while video titles are usually located at the top of the video, the PiP mode will position them to the bottom while the complete playlists will be visible through an icon found in the bottom-right corner.

Notably, while the PiP mode in the YouTube app gives the user an option to enable or disable the floating window, the web test appears to be lacking the feature. However, since it is not a global release, there will be several improvements in the feature by the time it is released.

YouTube is clearly aiming to make it easy for users to browse through its website's video content while continuing to watch their running videos with no interruption. However, it remains to be seen when the picture-in-picture mode actually rolls out to the public.