Google is working on updating Chrome PiP to better support video conferencing

The last 12 months have been dominated by video conferencing as we work and play from home due to the pandemic.

In acknowledgement of that Google is looking to improve video conferencing in Chrome by updating their Picture-in-Picture window to support common video calling actions, such as ending a call.

“We want to make picture-in-picture (PIP) more useful on video conferencing platforms by enabling the user to mute/unmute their microphone, enable/disable their camera, or hang up the call from the PIP window. To accomplish this, we’ll add new actions for these to the MediaSession API and let websites declare handlers for those actions,” said Google engineer Tommy Steimel in a design document seen by Techtsp.com.

A mockup also accompanied the style guide, which can be seen below:

Google anticipates by simply extending the MediaSession API used by the PiP window website developers will be able to adopt the technology easily and that it would not raise new privacy concerns.

The improvement is currently in the proposal stage and has not been implemented in any version of the Chrome browser yet.