A feature buried by Google in the recently released Android 11 Developer Preview 3 now makes picture-in-picture (PiP) windows resizeable. First discovered in the second developer preview, XDA Developers notes that the hidden feature is now fully functional. To access the feature, a development command is required but its appearance could indicate that Android 11 will offer the functionality.
For clarity, PiP windows are those pop-out windows that appear when a video is started from a compatible source such as YouTube. Users navigate away from the window by tapping or swiping to the home screen. The video is then scaled to a thumbnail-sized clip and placed over the top of other UI. Google designed the feature to throw the window to the bottom-right-hand corner. But it can be moved around with a click and a drag.
Clicking that clip has always brought it forward and increased its size slightly. Now, users can resize the thumbnail to just about any size they like.
Once resizeable PiP windows are enabled in Developer Preview 3, users simply need to tap and hold the corner of the window. Then, dragging in a diagonal direction will shrink or grow the frame. The adjustment happens within the confines of a locked aspect ratio to prevent stretching or other visual distortions.
The resizeable PiP feature isn’t quite ready yet in this Android 11 Developer Preview
Now, there are one or two caveats with the new feature suggesting that there’s a good reason it doesn’t appear turned on by default. Namely, it doesn’t appear to be finished yet in terms of polish and ease-of-use. The source notes that finding the appropriate position to tap and drag a PiP window, for starters, is not easy. But that’s not the only indication that Google still has some work to do here.
Another problem, as shown in the example video below, is that resizing is not pretty either. It doesn’t show a buttery smooth resizing of the video as it’s being played.
Instead, the content continues to play in its original size. The area that will be taken up by the content after users lift their finger from the screen is represented as a gray box surrounding the video. Once the user lifts their finger, the video jumps to its new size and continues playing.
The effect is somewhat jarring, compared to the smooth animations found elsewhere in Android 10 and Android 11. Google will likely attempt to adjust that before it releases the feature to the stable version of Android 11. That’s if it appears in the next version at all instead of a later version.
There are other features to look forward to, even if this one isn’t finished in time
Android 11 Developer Preview 3 is the final developer preview for the incoming iteration of Android. There are three more beta tests planned after that, with the final of those expected to drag on until at least Q3 2020. That doesn’t necessarily leave a lot of time for the resizeable PiP window feature to make an appearance in the final Android 11 release. But there are plenty of other user-facing features coming.
In this developer release alone, for instance, Google has made no fewer than two adjustments to Android’s recent apps page. To begin with, the company is adding a set of screen capture and sharing options to that UI. In Android 11, users will be able to quickly capture and share any of their currently-running apps. Users will also be able to perform an undo the action if they accidentally close out an app from the recent apps UI.
All of that is setting aside new features spotted in other versions of the developer preview. So there’s still plenty for users to look forward too.