Picture in Picture: Keep Watching While You Use Other Apps

A message arrives in the middle of a match. You don’t want to stop the video, and you don’t want to miss the reply either. Picture in picture (PiP) shrinks the video into a small floating window that stays on top while you chat, browse or check a map — and VideoPlayer can do it with one tap or automatically.

How to start picture in picture

• One tap: while the video plays, tap the PiP button at the bottom right of the controls.
• Automatically: just press Home or swipe up to go home while the video is playing. With Picture-in-picture on Home switched on in Settings (it is by default), the video shrinks into a window instead of stopping.

Using the picture in picture window

• Move it: drag the window to any corner.
• Resize it: pinch on the window (on most phones) or double-tap it.
• Controls: tap the window once to see back 10 s, play/pause and forward 10 s.
• Back to full screen: tap the expand icon in the window.
• Close: drag the window to the bottom of the screen or tap ✕.

The window keeps the video’s own shape — wide for films, tall for vertical clips.

Picture in picture vs. background play

Background play saves more battery because the screen and video decoding can stop; PiP keeps the picture.

Picture in picture not working?

• Check the phone setting. Android has a per-app switch: Settings → Apps → VideoPlayer → Picture-in-picture. It must be allowed.
• Android version. PiP needs Android 8 or newer. On older phones the button is hidden.
• Some phones disable PiP in power-saving modes. Turn battery saver off and try again.
• Video must be playing. Automatic PiP only kicks in when you leave during playback, not when it’s paused.

Tips

• Subtitles stay on in the PiP window, though small. Bigger subtitle size helps here.
• Sound settings like Dialogue Boost keep working.
• When you come back, your place is saved — and if you close the window, Continue watching takes you back to the same second.

Picture in picture on different phones

Picture in picture needs Android 8 or newer. On most phones it works straight away, but some brands let you switch it off per app:

• Check the permission: Settings → Apps → Special app access → Picture-in-picture → VideoPlayer → Allow. On Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO it’s under the app’s own settings page.
• Resize the window by pinching it, or double-tap it to switch between small and large on many phones.
• Tuck it away: on Android 11 and newer, flick the window to the screen edge to hide it while the sound keeps playing; pull the tab to bring it back.
• Close it by dragging it to the ✕ at the bottom of the screen.

Google’s documentation on picture-in-picture support explains how Android handles these windows.

Frequently asked questions