How to use Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo [Guide]

Google released Android 8.0 Oreo, the latest version of Android, back in August this year. Well, it isn’t anything revolutionary and doesn’t come with any major design overhaul. However, it does come with many under-the-hood refinements that ultimately help enhance the daily experience of a user. Some of the notable features it comes with are Picture-in-Picture (PiP) Mode, Notification Dots, Smart Text Selection, Notification Snoozing and Autofill Framework.

Out of all those features, the Picture-in-Picture Mode is the one that we like a lot. That’s because it takes the multi-tasking on Android to a new level. With Android 7.0 Nougat, Google brought multi-window feature that allowed users to open two apps in split-screen mode. With Oreo’s PiP Mode, multi-tasking goes a step ahead.

If you watch YouTube videos on smartphone through its app, you must be aware that pressing the back button takes you to previous screen while also playing the video in a floating window. It’s the same with Oreo’s PiP Mode, the only difference being that Google has now implemented it at OS level now without keeping it restricted to the YouTube app. Sounds cool? Want to try it out? Well, we show you how to use Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo.

How to use Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo

Before we show you how to use Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo, let us tell you that not all apps have support for this feature. It has to be enabled by the app developers. Moreover, at the time of writing this, there aren’t that many apps available that have support for PiP Mode. The apps that have support for PiP Mode are Google Chrome, Google Duo, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Services, Google Maps, WhatsApp, YouTube and VLC.

Speaking of YouTube, you will be able to use the PiP Mode on this app in Android Oreo only if you have YouTube Red subscription. Moreover, YouTube Red is unavailable in some countries (like India), hence, today we will show you how to use picture-in-picture mode in Android Oreo by playing YouTube video in Google Chrome. To use PiP Mode in other apps, you either tap the back button or the home button, depending on which app it is.

Step 1: Open Google Chrome and then open YouTube in Desktop mode. Then play any video. Once the video starts playing, enter full-screen mode by tapping on the full-screen icon.

Step 2: After you have entered full-screen mode, swipe up from bottom to see the navigation buttons and then tap on the home button. Once you do so, you will exit the full-screen mode and video will be resized to a small, rectangular floating window. Well that’s it. That’s how you use picture-in-picture mode in Android Oreo.

The small floating window playing the YouTube video will appear at the bottom of the screen, however, you can move it around anywhere on the screen you want. Just drag it wherever you want on the screen.

You can now open any other apps while also being able to watch that YouTube video. In our case, we opened Twitter and scrolled through MobiGyaan’s timeline.

To stop the playing video, just tap on the floating window and then tap on the Pause icon. To close it, you can tap on the ‘X’ icon that appears at the top-left corner of the floating window. To go back to full-screen mode, just tap on that full-screen icon. Once you are in the full-screen mode, you can tap the back button to go back to YouTube. You can also drag that floating window to the bottom of the screen to dismiss it.

In case you are unable to use picture-in-picture mode in Android Oreo for the apps that we mentioned earlier in this article, make sure the Picture-in-Picture mode is enabled for these apps by heading over to the Settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced > Special app access > Picture-in-picture menu and turn the toggle on for the respective app by clicking on the app name.

We have attached a video below to show how the Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo works.

The Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android Oreo is a nice feature. Power users would like it because they will not only be able to open two apps in split-screen mode, but, will also be able to watch a video or get navigation directions from Google Maps using the Picture-in-Picture Mode.

We hope you were able to use picture-in-picture mode in Android Oreo after going through this article. For more, you can take a look at our ‘How-To Guides‘ section.

Also Read: Top 18 Android 8.0 Oreo features you should know