WhatsApp on Wednesday, 3 October, started rolling out "Picture in Picture (PiP) mode" for viewing videos hosted on selected platforms, for all Android beta users running Android operating system (OS version 4.4 and above).
According to WABetaInfo, a fan website that tracks WhatsApp, the PiP feature is being introduced for all Android beta users that would allow users to play videos hosted on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Streamable right within WhatsApp.
PiP is a special type of multi-window mode mostly used for video playback. It lets the user 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. This feature has been widely used by those with the Samsung Galaxy phones, to whom the dual-screen option has been available for a while now.
To try out this feature, users will have to update the WhatsApp version to the 2.18.301 Android beta update. WhatsApp has already implemented the feature on its iOS app and it is expected to be introduced for all Android users soon.
The PiP feature was first rolled out in January for iOS users this year.
“Read later to discover if the feature is already enabled for you and please report us on Twitter if it correctly works. If you have already updated but you don't see the feature, please back up your chat history and reinstall WhatsApp if you don't want to wait more," WABetaInfo said.
PiP is one of the many features expected to roll out on WhatsApp in the coming months. Reports also suggest that the popular messaging app will soon start showing ads, something that Facebook has been meaning to do. With both Jan Koum and Brian Acton stepping down from their roles at Facebook, the end-to-end encrypted platform could go through wholesale changes that users may or may not like.
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