Picture-in-Picture

Watching videos has become probably the most comprehensive way of soaking in new information nowadays. There are various reports that showcase the incredible number of videos we watch on a daily basis, on all our devices.

However, one of the most annoying things about most video platforms is the fact that they don’t offer built-in, floating video players; the type of video players that allow users to watch videos in a floating windows while still being able to interact with other websites.

This seemingly “first-world problem” can be bypassed with the help of little Chrome extension developed by Google called Picture-in-Picture. It’s designed to do exactly what has been said above: to allow users to watch videos (on most platforms) in a floating window which always sits on top of other windows.

What’s most impressive about this unassuming Chrome extension is the fact that it allows users to preview videos in the said manner, even if Chrome is minimized. What’s more, the floating video player can be resized to perfectly fit the free space of your computer’s desktop and boasts the basic video controls, namely Play and Pause. Users can also activate the extension via the ALT + P keyboard combination.

Even though we have found that the extension works great in all conditions, it’s still not what one might call a comprehensive product. For instance, the rest of the video controls remain in the original Chrome tab, and are not translated to the floating player. This means that users can play and pause the video, but they can’t adjust the volume, or mute the video.

To conclude, Picture-in-Picture is a very good and very efficient Chrome extension that does its job rather well. The only downside is the fact that it does not integrate enough playback controls to keep all users happy. Hopefully, Google will enhance the extension’s features with future updates.