Chrome 134 will make Picture-in-Picture mode more seamless

Google has announced that from Chrome 134, users will be able to have Picture-in-Picture switch on automatically whenever they switch tabs from one playing audio or video. What this means that as you navigate to other tabs, you'll get a mini-player appear in a window to control the music or carry on watching the video.

The search giant says that it will start enabling the feature for users from Chrome 134, but only gradually; some users will have to wait for even later versions. If you don't want to wait, you can enable and test this feature immediately by enabling the “Auto picture in picture for video playback” flag at chrome://flags/#auto-picture-in-picture-for-video-playback.

For the feature to activate, the following criteria must be met to ensure a more pleasant experience:

• The top frame URL is safe according to the Safe Browsing service.
• The media lives in the top frame.
• The media has been audible within the last two seconds.
• The media has audio focus.
• The media is playing.
• A media session action handler for the “enterpictureinpicture” action has been registered.
• The user's Media Engagement Index threshold has been exceeded, indicating that the user frequently consumes media in this web app. This applies if the user's browser setting is “Can ask to enter picture-in-picture”. If the user explicitly allows the web app to enter picture-in-picture, this condition does not apply.

For end users, they will be asked if they would like to enable this feature on the website they're on every time, only this time, or never. The option can be updated by pressing the settings button to the left of the URL alongside other site permissions.

Google doesn't mention if there will be a check on the user's screen size before enabling this feature, so everyone should have access. That said, people with a larger screen with more room to move the pop-up window will have a better experience.

Source

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