Native support for the feature Picture-in-Picture mode was ushered in by Android Oreo and has been adopted by the likes of the VLC media player and desktop Google Chrome. WhatsApp has now joined in, making the PiP feature available to users who have updated to the latest 2.18.301 beta version.
WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging services with two billion monthly users, has undergone numerous updates in 2018. New group managing features such as user search, admin’s power of restricting group members from sending messages, a mute feature, a “Mark as Read” shortcut button for notifications, group voice and video calling, and a dark mode, to name a few. On October 2, WhatsApp even rolled out the Swipe to Reply feature for beta users.
According to reports, WhatsApp is incorporating the picture-in-picture mode feature that has been in development since the 2.18.234 beta update for all Android 4.4+ users who have updated to the latest 2.18.301 beta version. This WhatsApp PiP feature enables users to play videos hosted on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram and is streamable within WhatsApp itself.
Users will moreover get the option of playing the video in WhatsApp PiP mode when they send or receive a link to one of these services on WhatsApp. For example, when a user taps the play icon on a YouTube video, WhatsApp will show them the video in picture-in-picture mode. This mode helpfully allows the user to continue messaging in the chat and watching the video.
However, the WhatsApp PiP mode disappears when the user switches to another chat, unlike that found in iOS. So, there might be a possibility that Android would shell out another update to fix this issue.
Users can download the latest WhatsApp 2.18.301 beta version from APKMirror.
