Picture in Picture on iPhone: How to Enable and Use Picture in Picture (PIP)

Picture-in-Picture is one of the new features added by Apple to iPhone on iOS 14. It allows users to do multiple things at the same time on one screen. In this article, let's learn about the Picture-in-Picture feature and how to use it smoothly!

Complete Guide to Picture in Picture iOS 14

• What is Picture-in-Picture?
• Enable Picture in Picture on iPhone
• How to watch offscreen videos on the web iOS 14
• Use Picture in Picture with apps
• Use Picture in Picture with Facetime
• Change the size and position of the Picture in Picture window
• Move Picture in Picture window off screen

What is Picture-in-Picture?

Picture-in-Picture (PIP) is a feature that allows users to watch videos in a small window on the phone screen, while still being able to view and operate on other applications. Initially, this feature was only introduced by Apple on iPad, after iOS 14, it was added to iPhone.

Enable Picture in Picture on iPhone

If nothing unusual happens, the PiP feature is enabled by default on your iPhone. If you can't use PiP even after following the instructions below, go to Settings > General > Picture in Picture and turn on the Start PiP Automatically option .

How to watch offscreen videos on the web iOS 14

PiP works on most video-playing sites opened in Safari. On a page with a video, tap to play the video, then tap the PiP icon or double-tap the video with two fingers. You can also swipe up from the bottom of the screen to activate it. Now you can watch a video while browsing the web like normal.

Use Picture in Picture with apps

PiP is available on apps that play video content, but we have to wait for the developers of those apps to update their software to support this feature.

As on the iOS 14 beta and official iOS 14, the free version of Youtube still does not support PiP, if you want to watch YouTube off screen on iOS 14, please read below. However, with Apple applications such as Apple TV, you can click on the PiP icon to activate this mode, use two fingers to touch the video twice, or swipe up to access the PiP function.

Exiting PiP mode and returning to full screen mode follows the same steps. Close the Picture in Picture window and exit the app by clicking the X icon in the upper left corner.

Use Picture in Picture with Facetime

PiP supports FaceTime on iOS 14, and this is probably the biggest benefit of this feature. From iOS 13 and below, every time you want to switch apps, FaceTime will automatically video you, meaning the other end of the line can still hear you but can't see you.

Starting with iOS 14 , the FaceTime window will automatically minimize when you switch to another app, and your video will still appear on the other end of the line without being cut off.

You can double-tap FaceTime to resize the window, and if you just tap once, FaceTime will return to full screen as usual. You can move the PiP window to any suitable position.

Change the size and position of the Picture in Picture window

You can double-click on any PiP window and use some gestures to resize it. There are three sizes to choose from: small, medium, and large.

Small windows will be the size of two app icons, medium will be three icons wide and one and a half times as tall, large will be the size of eight app icons.

Picture in Picture can be used with most apps on the main screen. Small and medium windows can be moved anywhere on the screen, large windows can be placed in the upper or lower corners.

Move Picture in Picture window off screen

You can drag the PiP window off the screen at any size if you want. You'll still hear the audio from the video or Facetime, but the image won't be visible.

You can use Picture in Picture (PiP) to watch YouTube videos off-screen on iOS 14, but YouTube has locked this feature on the app so you cannot use PiP directly, you have to add a few more small steps that we have detailed instructions in another article: How to watch YouTube off-screen iOS 14