Picture in Picture keeps a thumbnail of a video playing while you do anything else on your phone.
Apple. Screenshot by CNETiPhone ($699 at Apple) owners using iOS 14 are in for a treat with Picture in Picture, a new iPhone feature announced on Monday as part of Apple's online WWDC event. A Samsung innovation that was later adopted by all Android phones, picture in picture has been a staple for years. The feature isn't new for Apple -- it already exists on the iPad -- but it is new to the iPhone in particular, an iconic device with over 100 million users in the US, according to Statista.
Despite its late arrival for the iPhone, Apple's take on the video feature has some extra tricks that Google might want to imitate. Picture in Picture and other iPhone features will come to iOS 14 public beta in July and to everyone else in the fall.
Here's what Picture in Picture is, how it works, how it could surpass PiP on Android phones, and its limitations. (And here's how to tell if iOS 14 will work with your iPhone.)
What is Picture in Picture video for iOS 14?
Picture in Picture lets you watch a thumbnail-size video play in the corner of your screen while you do other things on your phone. The video sticks around as you pop open a chat window, scroll through a news story on your browser or fine-tune your screen settings. So, you can watch a video on the iPhone from any screen.
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Picture in Picture is the proper name Apple gave this feature, but it's generally known in mobile circles as picture-in-picture or PiP.
Picture in Picture will work with these iPhone apps right away
- Apple TV
- Podcasts
- Safari
- FaceTime
- iTunes
- Home
- Any third-party app that supports the feature on iPad today
App developers who want to take advantage of PiP will need to use Apple's Picture in Picture APIs.
How Picture in Picture will work on the iPhone
You can keep a FaceTime conversation going in iOS 14 while looking at your schedule, or any other iPhone screen.
Apple. Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNETWhichever phone you use it on, picture-in-picture is a great little convenience feature. You don't go out of your way to use it. It comes to you, and in a way that should be completely natural and helpful.
Here's what happens on the iPhone. You start watching a video on a compatible app. It occurs to you that you need to reply to a text, check your email or look up the weather. As you swipe up to go Home, your video shrinks down and continues to roll in a thumbnail view. This works with FaceTime calls, too.
The thumbnail is persistent, which means you can switch to any app you want for as long as you want without the video going away. To make the video window larger, pinch to zoom. To move it around, simply drag it with your fingertip.
If the PiP window is getting in the way, you can swipe it off to the side where it docks and all but disappears, leaving you a tab to pull when you want it out again. Here's the best part -- the audio continues to play even if you dock the video thumbnail.
While in Picture in Picture mode, you can pause, go back or go forward on apps that support those controls. And you can tap a control to go full screen or close the video entirely, say if you're done with a FaceTime call.
What Google and Samsung could learn from iOS 14's Picture in Picture
Apple's Picture in Picture feature could have a leg up on Android PiP two ways. I felt my eyes light up when Apple demonstrated the docking feature in iOS 14. On Android phones, you can drag around a PiP window anywhere on the screen that you want, but move it to the margins and it'll bump around like a bowling ball at a child's birthday party.
I can't tell you how many times I've closed a PiP window exasperated that it was always in the way. But you don't always want to stop the video. The option to keep the audio playing after docking the video sounds extremely useful for FaceTime calls, so you can temporarily make full use of your screen while talking to the other person.
For example, maybe you need to carefully follow walking directions, but you still want them to be able to see your face on video.
Pinch to zoom is the other potential standout with Apple's Picture in Picture tool. It doesn't exist for Android. On phones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 and OnePlus 8 Pro ($999 at OnePlus), I could zoom to make it a little larger, and a second zoom attempt opened it to full size. If Apple's method gives you true scaling (as it appears to do) and works as advertised, that could make other phone brands pay attention.
Of course, we'll need to try the method firsthand in the iOS 14 beta, and in the finished device to see how it truly compares.
What iPhone's Picture in Picture won't be able to do
Apple's new feature is advertised to work with video only, compared to PiP on Android, which also works with Maps. As someone with a lamentable sense of direction, keeping one eye on walking directions while I'm doing whatever else I'm doing has been a lifesaver more times than I can count. Hopefully Apple will expand in the future to include Apple -- and Google -- maps within the Picture in Picture realm.
Here's what you need to know about iOS 14 and everything Apple announced at WWDC.
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