The Multitasking Dilemma
When you are working on a massive spreadsheet or writing a long document on your computer, you often want to watch a YouTube video, a live news broadcast, or a tutorial at the same time. The traditional solution is to resize your Google Chrome browser window and physically cram it into the corner of your monitor. However, as soon as you click back to your spreadsheet, the Chrome window disappears behind your work. To solve this, Google Chrome features a built-in “Picture-in-Picture” (PiP) mode. This extracts the actual video player out of the webpage and floats it in a resizable, borderless window that permanently hovers on top of all other applications.
How to Trigger Picture-in-Picture on YouTube
Because YouTube uses a highly customized video player interface, activating Chrome’s native PiP feature requires a specific, hidden trick.
- Open Google Chrome and navigate to YouTube.com.
- Start playing any video.
- Right-click directly on the video player. A black YouTube-specific menu will appear (offering options like Loop, Copy video URL, etc.).
- Do not click anything on that menu. Instead, simply right-click a second time on the video player.
- A completely different, standard white Google Chrome context menu will suddenly appear over the top of the black menu.
- Select Picture in picture from this white menu.
Managing the Floating Window
The main YouTube tab will instantly turn black with a message saying “This video is playing in picture-in-picture.”
- Move it: Click and drag the floating video anywhere on your screen.
- Resize it: Hover your mouse over the edge of the floating video until the cursor turns into a double-arrow, then click and drag to make the video larger or smaller.
- Stay on top: You can now open Word, Excel, or completely minimize Chrome. The floating video will remain locked on top of all other windows.
- Return to Tab: To stop PiP mode, hover over the floating video and click the “Back to tab” icon (a small square with an arrow) in the center of the screen, or simply click the X in the corner to close the video entirely.