As one of the most popular and fully-featured video player apps available on the Play Store, we've become accustomed to MX Player getting useful new features on a regular basis. Most recently, the team behind it added Chromecast support for online streaming content, and the latest update includes a Picture-in-Picture function.
Read MoreYouTube picture-in-picture support for non-Premium subscribers is spreading beyond the US
For years and years now, mobile users have clamored for the same experience watching YouTube on their small devices as they have on a computer. You can keep YouTube playing and switch to another tab or app, you can resize that window and open another one side-by-side, and all of that without paying for a subscription. On mobile, however, non-paying users had to wait until 2016 and YouTube's multi-window support to be able to do something else while watching a video. If you wanted more perks like background playback and picture-in-picture, you had to be a Red, now Premium, subscriber.
Read MoreOpera for Android version 50 introduces a more publisher-friendly ad blocker, faster scrolling, and PiP [APK Download]
For its latest big Android update, Opera is including a key new feature that makes it easier to whitelist websites from the in-built ad blocker. Other enhancements include the addition of Picture-in-Picture video and a new fast-scrolling handle.
Read MoreGoogle extension enables picture-in-picture for Chrome OS version 72
When you're watching a video from a site, such as YouTube, you might want to do something else and navigate to other tabs while not missing out on what you were watching. That's where picture-in-picture comes in handy as it allows the video to be pushed to a mini-player on your screen so you can do other stuff.
The feature has been in the works for the Chrome browser for a while and is enabled by default as of version 70 for Mac, Windows, and Linux. For Chrome OS, you'd need to manually set a flag to enable picture-in-picture, which didn't always work.
Read MorePicture-in-Picture now enabled by default in Chrome for Mac, Windows, and Linux
It's a popular feature on Android, especially useful if you want to watch YouTube videos while you do other things, and now Picture-in-picture (PiP) is officially coming to the desktop. As of version 70, when you're watching a video in Chrome, you'll be able to minimize it and carry on pretending to do some work.
Read More[Update: Official] YouTube picture-in-picture Miniplayer now being tested on the web
For a while now the YouTube app on both Android and iOS has allowed users to minimize a playing video into a floating window, letting them browse other content without interrupting playback. A similar floating mode is apparently being tested on the web now.
Read More[Update: Rolling out widely in the US] YouTube testing picture-in-picture mode for those without Red subscriptions
When Android 8.0 Oreo introduced picture-in-picture (PiP) mode, the obvious beneficiary of the new feature was Google's first-party YouTube app. Unfortunately, Google decided at the time that the advantage of nested playback was best locked behind a YouTube Red subscription. Based on recent developments, though, that may be set to change. We've seen several reports that some videos are allowing for PiP playback without a YouTube Red subscription.
Read MoreThe Best Of AP
Android P feature spotlight: Settings button added to Picture-in-Picture
There are plenty of wide-reaching changes in the first Android P Developer Preview, but there are a few smaller tweaks worth covering. Picture-in-Picture mode was first added in Android TV 7.0, and later arrived on phones and tablets with 8.0 Oreo. One of the many additions in Android P is a new settings button for PiP mode.
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Pluto TV 3.5 adds picture-in-picture for Oreo, On Demand resume, and stream quality settings [APK Download]
Free television streaming service Pluto TV updated its Android app to v3.5, adding Oreo picture-in-picture support, the ability to resume previously-watched On Demand content, and settings to configure the stream quality to conserve data.
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YouTube's 'miniplayer-bar' test lets you keep watching your video as you read comments
We only just wrote about YouTube's new picture-in-picture test on the web, but it's common knowledge by now that Google loves running limited tests. The world's largest video sharing site is now testing a feature it calls 'miniplayer-bar' in its code, and it's something that really should have been implemented a long time ago.
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