While Netflix has stressed its users watch content on mobile devices more than any other device, it knows it has to attend to other streamable devices. In a new development, the online streaming company has begun testing the Picture-in-Picture mode (PiP) for its website on PC. Already available on Android devices, Netflix PiP mode lets users continue accessing the phone sideways.
First spotted by folks at Engadget, Netflix now lets select users enable the PiP window mode so that they can watch content while operating the PC for other things. We could independently check the feature and found it to be quite handy. Netflix pops out the media window from the browser so that you can keep watching the show or movie while managing files, working on documents, and more on your PC device. The PiP mode was accessible on Google Chrome browser on Windows 10 but macOS Mojave has not received the update as of publishing the story.
The floating window can be resized, however, to a certain limit – you cannot stretch it to fill the screen as it would turn into the regular mode. According to the report, the PiP mode used by Netflix is not the same as used by Safari or Chrome browser. It should also be noted that the pop-out player will not show the subtitles for the content. The window shows media control buttons, in addition to the button to exit the PiP mode and return to the full-screen mode inside the browser. You can also exit the playback.
Netflix has not officially confirmed the rollout but it told Engadget that “this is only a test”. Usually, nifty features like this make it to the regular, commercial versions quite soon. Netflix may take some time to determine the use cases on different PC platforms before it releases the PiP mode on desktop. Netflix users in India should soon begin to see the feature along with the users elsewhere.
