Google is planning a major change to Chrome’s picture-in-picture mode, enabling users to open non-video content. This new version of picture-in-picture may support interactive media content, such as pictures or certain types of embedded content, such as audio, while users continue to browse the web.
As you probably know, Google Chrome’s existing picture-in-picture feature can only play video. However, in an upcoming update, it will be possible to play interactive HTML content in a picture-in-picture mode, making it easier for users to multitask. The project is currently called PIP 2.0, and its purpose is to enable interactive HTML content in picture-in-picture windows.
Interactive content is a subjective term, so we don’t know how the search engine giant intends to upgrade the picture-in-picture mode, but you can expect support for elements such as audio, embeds, iframes, imgs, and more. This is part of a new family of Picture-in-Picture V2 features that allow always-on-top windows with arbitrary content. This CL introduces the new window subtype and sets the Z layer to display it among other content. Subsequent CLs will add additional behavioral changes,” Google noted in a Chromium post.
There’s also a Chromium post that states that a new code in Chrome will “hide the window frame and position bar when the [picture-in-picture] window loses focus (after a timeout)” and add it again when it regains focus, allowing A cleaner asynchronous API, and will provide a way to expose interactions not supported by the platform, when a picture-in-picture is requested and the window is displayed, we’ll copy the requested element into the body of the new window. We should use a deep version of the Document.import node algorithm for replication,” the company added.
In the same document, Google is using a new term “web picture-in-picture window” to describe the upcoming changes. While the idea sounds interesting, it could expose users to potential security and privacy issues, and Google is exploring a solution.
For interactive picture-in-picture, there are concerns about impersonating the system’s UI. Therefore, we will ensure the user experience of the picture-in-picture window by adding a border (and perhaps an indicator of origin) that It’s stark enough, the company said.
Google says it will disable permission prompts and autofill or similar sensitive features, and it will also remove regular keyboard events to reduce the potential attack surface of picture-in-picture windows. In addition to upgrading Picture-in-Picture, Google is believed to be working on additional design improvements for the Chrome browser on Windows.