Guide to apps that support Picture in Picture mode in Nokia Android phones

The new Android phones of Nokia have the latest Android Oreo or Android 8.0 and supports Picture in Picture Mode or commonly known as PIP.  Picture in Picture is a special type of multi-window mode mostly used for video playback. It lets you watch a video in a small window pinned to a corner of the screen while navigating between apps or browsing content on the main screen.

To add PIP to your app, you need to register your activities that support PIP, switch your activity to PIP mode as needed, and make sure UI elements are hidden and video playback continues when the activity is in PIP mode.

The PIP window appears in the top-most layer of the screen, in a corner chosen by the system. You can drag the PIP window to another location. When you tap on the window two special controls appear: a full-screen toggle (in the center of the window) and a close button (an “X” in the upper right corner). Your app controls when the current activity enters PIP mode.

Enabling PIP on Nokia Android phones

To enable PIP on Nokia Android phone is very simple and easy. All you need is to head to Settings–>Apps & notifications–>App info–>Go to the app–>Advanced–>Picture-in-Picture–>toggle on “Allow picture-in-picture”.

As not all apps support PIP you should first check which app supports it before enabling it. Here is the guide to apps that support Picture in Picture mode in Nokia Android phones.

1. Google Maps

When you are navigating the app you can use Maps in Picture in Picture or PIP mode. Remember Maps work in PIP mode only when you are using the navigation while driving or riding. All you need to do is to use the home button to send the app in the background while using navigation and PIP window pops up.

2. WhatsApp

WhatsApp for Android supports PIP mode. But again this works only when you are doing video calling. Just minimize the app by pressing the home button and PIP windows shows the ongoing call.

Tapping the back button while taking a video call in WhatsApp will take you back to your main conversation screen for the contact you’re talking to, and if you’d like, you can go all the way back to your home screen and even open up other applications while still being able to view the video call that you’re currently on. It’s a really smart use of Android Oreo’s picture-in-picture feature, and arguably more useful than Google’s PiP support for Maps.

3. Google Duo

You can use PIP mode on Google Duo while calling someone or while receiving the call just like you do it in case of WhatsApp. Of course, you will only be able to enjoy this mode if your smartphone is already running on Android Oreo.

4. Google Chrome

If you are using Google Chrome browser to watch videos using other services like Vimeo, Facebook in full-screen mode, you can just send Chrome to the background using the home button and the video will keep on playing in PIP window.

The picture in picture mode works on all platforms, so you can enable PiP in Chrome on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS as well as Linux.

First, head to the following address in a new Chrome tab: chrome://flags/#enable-picture-in-picture

Change the setting from ‘Default’ to ‘Enabled’. Next, go to this address in a new Chrome tab:

chrome://flags/#enable-surfaces-for-videos Once again change the setting from ‘Default’ to ‘Enabled’. Finally, relaunch Chrome as prompted (look for the giant blue ‘relaunch Chrome’ button at the bottom of the window).

To use Picture in Picture on YouTube in Chrome

The picture in picture feature for Chrome works exactly as you’d expect. You find a video, right-click on the embed or player, and select the Picture in Picture option to shunt it to a small window in the corner of your desktop.

When you find a video you want to watch in picture in picture you need to right click twice on the video player to open the main options menu, and select the “Picture in Picture” option.

The video will pop out and appear in the lower right hand corner. You can both resize and reposition the floating window as you wish.

Remember when you use this feature in Chrome that closing the tab the video is on will close the player, you can’t have more than one PIP on screen at the same time and if autoplay is enabled the next video will play in PIP automatically.

5. Facebook

The Facebook app supports it while playing videos using the Facebook video player.Look for a video you want to watch; it can be on your own news feed, a friend’s timeline, or on a page. Tap to play it; you must enter the video player. You can’t enter picture in picture mode from your news feed.

At the top left, you will see a button with a square within a square. Tap it and the video will be minimized to the bottom right of your screen. It will continue to play. To maximize it, tap the video. If you want to stop the video without maximizing it first, swipe left on the small thumbnail player.

If you don’t like the video in the bottom right corner, you can snap it to a different corner by dragging the tiny player. You can snap it to one of the four corners of the screen but you cannot snap it either one of the sides.

6. VLC App

VLC for Android supports PIP mode. You play a video and you can pull it down to the bottom-right corner of the screen. It only takes a minimum screen area.

Once the video is minimized to the bottom-right, you can use VLC and browse for other media or go in other areas like the settings section in the app. Additionally, you can stop using VLC and still use your phone like go to your home screen, bring up the app drawer or even open another app. All this while the video is playing in the bottom corner. This is multitasking with a media playing.

To use the background or picture in picture (PiP) mode in VLC, you just need to use a button present on the interface. Here is how you do that:

Open up a video>Tap on the screen>Click on the options button (three dots)>Press the eighth button (rectangle within another rectangle).

Now, VLC’s player will be in the background. If you press the home button, your home screen will open with the video still playing. Use your phone normally. You can open other apps freely.

There are additional settings to help you control the behavior of the minimized or background video. These options are applicable when you switch to other apps. You can opt to stop the video, play it hidden in the background or show it in the screen’s corner.

To configure PiP Click on the ☰ Menu>Go to Settings>Tap on Background/PiP mode under Video>There are three options>Stop: Does the obvious. The player terminates>Play videos in background: The player hides but you can hear the video playing>Play videos in Picture-in-picture mode: A smaller player will activate on the corner of the screen.

7. Netflix App

Netflix has now enabled picture-in-picture support but for Android 8.1 Oreo running smartphones only. Good news is that all Nokia smartphones with the exception of Nokia 2 and Nokia 3 run Android 8.1 Oreo already.

To activate Netflix’s picture-in-picture mode, you’ll need to update to Android 8.1 and update your Netflix app to the latest version. Once both are updated, open up the app, select your video, then hit the home button. Once you do, a small window with your video will pop up on your screen. You can move it around so you can position it perfectly to watch the new Stranger Things episodes as you reply to work emails.

Now use this awesome feature of the Oreo update and enjoy the excitement of PIP in Nokia phones.