Microsoft Edge’s picture-in-picture (PiP) mode is super handy for watching videos while you’re doing other things. It lets you pop a video out into a floating window, so you can keep an eye on it even when you’re browsing other tabs or using different apps.
Using Picture-in-Picture
Here’s how to get videos playing in PiP mode on Edge:
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Make sure your Edge browser is up-to-date. Then, head to a site like YouTube and start playing a video.
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Right-click on the video. If you don’t see “Picture in picture” right away, right-click again to get a different context menu. You should then see the “Picture in picture” option; select it.
- The video should now be in a small window on the bottom-right of your screen. On the original page, you’ll see a notice that PiP mode is on.
- You can resize the floating window by dragging its edges or corners. Drag inwards to make it smaller or outwards to make it larger, but keep in mind there’s a maximum size.
The PiP window stays on top, even if you switch tabs or apps, so you can keep watching without interruptions. Mouse over the floating window to see controls such as “Pause” and “Back to tab,” which will close PiP and return the video to its original page.
Enabling Global Media Controls for Picture-in-Picture
Global Media Controls give you more control over media playback across Edge. You can manage videos, including those in PiP, right from the browser toolbar. Here’s how to enable it:
- Enter
edge://flags/#global-media-controlsin the address bar and hitEnter.
- Find the “Global Media Controls” flag. Click the dropdown and choose “Enabled”.
- Next, find the “Global Media Controls Picture-in-Picture” flag and “Enable” it too, so you can control PiP via these controls.
- You’ll need to restart Edge to enable the changes. Click “Restart” at the bottom of the flags page.
- After the restart, you’ll see a media control icon on your browser toolbar. Clicking this provides controls for all playing media, including PiP videos. You’ll find controls like “Seek backward,” “Play/Pause,” “Seek forward,” and an option to toggle Picture-in-Picture mode.
If you’ve got several media sources going in different tabs, each one will be listed separately in the Global Media Controls, so you can handle them all individually.
Enabling both PiP mode and Global Media Controls makes multitasking with videos in Edge a much smoother experience.