Google Chrome Gets Picture-in-Picture for Video Calling

Google is working on a Picture-in-Picture feature for video conferencing in Chrome. For the time being, it is a prototype.

Chrome would like to expand its video conferencing features. That writes Techtsp.com. Specifically, we are working on a Picture-in-Picture function that makes it possible to launch and operate conf calls from the browser.

The idea behind Picture-in-Picture (PiP) is that you put a video as a floating window on top of your other windows. This lets you, for example, watch a video while taking notes in a document at the same time. The system has been in Chrome (via an extension) for some time, but Google now also wants to make the function possible for video conferencing.

A Media Session API is used for this. This should make it possible to mute your microphone, turn the camera on and off and end video calls from a PiP window.

Not everyone has a second physical screen for working from home, and now that video calls are increasingly used, the idea of a PiP for conf calls seems particularly useful. It is indeed a prototype for the time being.

According to Techtsp, the feature should be rolled out across various desktop platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows and Chrome OS.