How to Enable Picture-in-Picture Mode on Chromebook

Jan. 22, 2021



Of late, Chromebook has been getting tons of features to make it acompetitive alternative against Windows laptops. Just recently, Chrome OS got support for abuilt-in video recorder, Picture-in-Picture mode,clipboard manager,dark mode, and more. Among these features, Picture-in-Picture is an interesting addition as it allows you to watch video content from any website in a separate, resizable, floating window. So if you want to learn how to enable Picture-in-Picture mode on Chromebook then follow our guide below.

Here, we have mentioned three ways to turn on PiP mode on Chromebook. You can either use YouTube’s built-in mini-player option or install an extension or turn on a Chrome flag for system-wide Picture-in-Picture support. So on that note, let’s go through the steps.

  1. If you want Picture-in-Picture modeprimarily on YouTubethen you don’t need to enable or install any extension to get this feature. Just click on the “mini-player” button or press the “i” key on your keyboard to turn on Picture-in-Picture mode instantly. That’s it.

  2. Keep in mind, in this native method, the PiP window will only belimited to the YouTube taband you can’t resize the window.

  3. If you want Picture-in-Picture to workon all websitesand not just YouTube then you will have to install aChrome extension. You can install Picture-in-Picture Extension by Google (Free) on your Chromebook.

  4. After the installation, click on the Extension toolbar at the top-right corner andpin Picture-in-Pictureto the front menu.

  5. Finally, play video on any website and thenclick on the extension.

  6. It will instantly create a PiP window. You can resize the window and it works across different tabs as well. Not to mention, the PiP windowappears on the desktop as wellso that is nice.

  7. Above, we discussed two solutions: YouTube’s native option and the extension method. Now we are going to learn about Chrome OS’ native option that allows you to create a Picture-in-Picture window from any website. Openchrome://flagsandenable all three “Global Media Controls…” flags.

  8. Next, click on “Restart” at the bottom of the page.

  9. Now, go ahead and play a video on any website. Upon playing video content, amusic toolbar will appearon the Chrome OS Shelf. Open it and click on the “PiP” button.

  10. Finally, a Picture-in-Picture window will open up and you candrag it anywhereon the screen, resize it and float it over the desktop. That’s quite handy, right?

Our tutorial will work with all of the following Chromebooks. It is not an exhaustive list and is only here to serve as an example.

Create PiP Window on Any Website on Chrome OS

Create PiP Window on Any Website on Chrome OS

So that is how you can enable the PiP feature on your Chromebook and create a separate floating window on top of other apps and tabs. As I mentioned above, if you just want PiP on YouTube then the built-in button works pretty well. However, if you want PiP support on all tabs and windows then getting the extension or enabling the flag would be much better.

The best part is that all these methods works even if you are trying toenable PiP mode in Chrome browseron any other operating system. Anyway, that is all from us. If you found the article helpful then head over to our article on thebest Chrome OS tips and tricksand learn more such tricks. And if you have any questions then let us know in the comment section below.

Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.

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