What’s Picture in Picture and How to Use It in Different Cases?

This post elucidated by MiniTool Software mainly introduces a kind of video playing technology called picture in picture. Nowadays, it is a popular utility that enables people to watch videos while doing other businesses.

About Picture in Picture

What Is the picture in picture? Picture-in-picture (PiP), also known as video overlay, is a function in personal computers (PCs), mobile phones, as well as television (TV) receivers. It consists of a video stream playing within an inserted window with the rest of the screen playing other contents.

For TVs, PiP needs 2 independent tuners or signal sources to supply the large and the small windows. Two-tuner picture in picture televisions has a second tuner built in. Yet, a single-tuner PiP TV requires an external signal source that can be a tuner, DVD player, videocassette recorder, or cable box. Usually, PiP is used to watch one program while waiting for the other to start or advertisements to finish.

YouTube Picture-in-Picture

Picture in picture permits you to watch YouTube videos while using other programs on your mobile device.

The Principle of Picture in Picture

Picture-in-picture shrinks the video into a small player that you can drag anywhere on your home screen. It is always on the top of other app windows. Thus, you can watch YouTube videos and do other businesses simultaneously.

To start picture in picture playback, just tap the android home button (the house icon) and the video will turn to a PiP window. To resume playback in the YouTube app, double tap the PiP window. To dismiss the PiP altogether, you need to drag its window to the bottom of the screen.

Related article: How to Fix YouTube Picture in Picture Not Working on Android

Availability of PiP

In general, picture in a picture is only available in the following situations.

  • YouTube Premium members on Android mobile devices, worldwide.
  • Android users in the USA running Android Oreo or greater, with ad-supported PiP playback.

How to Use Picture-in-Picture?

Next, let’s see how to take advantage of the PiP utility of the YouTube application on Android phones.

Turn on/off Picture-in-Picture

By default, the PiP feature is turned on for all devices running Android 8.0 (Oreo) and above. If yours isn’t, just do as the below.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced > Special app access > Picture-in-picture.
  2. Select YouTube.
  3. Choose Allow Picture-in-picture.

Tap Allow Picture-in-picture again to turn off PiP.

Dismiss Picture-in-Picture

Generally, there are two methods to dismiss PiP.

First of all, you can tap the picture-in-picture player to show controls and tap the X in the top right. Secondly, you can directly drag the PiP player right to the bottom of the screen.

Tip:

  • If you are a YouTube Premium subscriber, a notification will pop up allowing you to resume playback in Background Play mode.
  • Music content isn’t available for PiP playback without a Premium subscsription.

YouTube Background Play Mode

If you are a Premium user of YouTube, you can enjoy the Background play mode that enables you to watch videos while using other software or when your screen is off. Also, you can set up the background play mode as the YouTube tool default instead of picture-in-picture.

To achieve that, just switch off PiP for YouTube in the Android Settings as described above. Or, tap the picture in picture option and tap the headphone icon.

Picture in Picture iPhone

With iPhone picture in picture, you are able to multitask and watch a video or use FaceTime while dealing with other work.

When you are watching a video, just tap the diagonal arrow icon in the video window to enable picture-in-picture. Then, the video window will scale down to a corner of the smartphone display, freeing up the rest of the home screen to do other things.

Besides, you can manage the PiP window in the following aspects:

  • Move the video window – drag and drop.
  • Hide the video window – drag it off the left or right edge of the screen.
  • Close the video window – tap the cross mark.
  • Return to a full video screen – tap the diagonal arrow icon.
  • Resize the video window – pinch open to enlarge and pinch closed to shrink.
  • Show/hide controls – tap the video window.
Tip: Update: YouTube TV Picture-in-Picture Is Supported on iOS Now!

Picture-in-Picture Extension

There is a Chrome extension named Picture-in-Picture, which enables you to watch videos in a floating window (always on top of other windows) so that you can keep an eye on what you are watching while interacting with other websites or apps.

These applications are completely compatible with Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7.

MiniTool MovieMaker

An easy-to-use video editing software without watermarks and limits. The embedded templates enable you to quickly make personal slideshows and share them with your friends!

MiniTool MovieMaker FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

MiniTool Video Converter

Quickly convert videos and audio from one file format to another to apply to more devices. It supports 1000+ popular output formats and batch conversion. Besides, it can also record PC screens without any watermark.

MiniTool Video Converter FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

About The Author

Helen

Position: Columnist

Helen Graduated from university in 2014 and started working as a tech editor in the same year. Her articles focus on video creation, editing, and conversion. She also has a good knowledge of disk management and data backup & recovery. Through an in-depth exploration of computer technology, Helen has successfully helped thousands of users solve their annoying problems.