Since iOS 9, the iPad has had Picture in Picture mode, which lets you minimize a video that you're watching into a floating overlay so that you can multitask in other apps while it plays. For iPhones, it came a little later, first appearing in iOS 14. It's not just for the Plus or Max displays either — any size display works.
However, developers need to add support for Picture in Picture, so it doesn't work with all apps. View the lists below to see what does and doesn't play nice with the PiP viewer. And let us know if you've found any others — we'll be continuously updating these lists as we discover more apps that work or don't work.
Apps That Work
- Amazon Prime Video
- Apollo for Reddit
- Apple TV
- Cake Web Browser
- CNN: Breaking US & World News
- Disney+
- DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser
- EPIX: Stream with TV Package
- EPIX NOW: Watch TV and Movies
- ESPN: Live Sports & Scores
- FaceTime
- Firefox: Private, Safe Browser
- Firefox Focus: Privacy browser
- FOX NOW: Watch TV & Sports
- Google Chrome
- Google Play Movies & TV
- HBO Go
- HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies
- Home
- Hulu: Stream movies & TV shows
- iTunes Store
- Microsoft Bing Search
- Microsoft Edge
- MLB
- Movies Anywhere
- The NBC App – Stream TV Shows
- Netflix
- NHL
- PBS Video
- Pocket: Save. Read. Grow.
- Podcasts
- Safari
- Shazam: Music Discovery
- SHOWTIME: TV, Movies and More
- Showtime Anytime
- Spectrum TV
- STARZ
- TIDAL Music
- Tubi - Watch Movies & TV Shows
- USA Network
- Vudu - Movies & TV
- YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream (music videos for Premium subscribers only)
- YouTube TV
- And any third-party app which supports it on iPadOS
Apps That Work but Are Buggy
- REDBOX: Rent, Stream & Buy (crashes right away)
Apps That Don't Work Yet
- ABC – Live TV & Full Episodes
- AMC: Stream TV Shows & Movies
- Animal Planet GO
- App Store
- Apple News
- Discovery GO
- Files
- FXNOW: Movies, Shows & Live TV
- HISTORY: TV Shows on Demand
- IMDb: Movies & TV Shows
- Messenger
- Quibi: All New Original Shows
- Roku - Official Remote
- TikTok - Trends Start Here
- Twitter (works in-app only)
- Ultimate Guitar: Chords & Tabs
- Xbox
- Yahoo Mail - Organized Email (has live sports games in case you're wondering)
- YouTube Music
Workarounds for Incompatible Apps
If the app you want to play videos in isn't supported, you can try watching the video on its site in a web browser. Since Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and other iOS browsers support PiP mode, if you can play the video in one of those, you can most likely PiP it. You don't even need to request the desktop site or anything. Just play the video in-browser, then activate PiP mode.
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If you don't want to use a web browser to view the video, the second way is to use another third-party app that supports PiP mode, such as Pocket. If you save the video or the page with the video embedded to Pocket, you can open and watch it from there at any time. Then, activate PiP mode within the app.
Cover photo by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks
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