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How to Enable Picture-in-Picture (PiP) Mode in Firefox

Learn how to enable the Picture in Picture (PiP) mode on Mozilla Firefox. You can enable the floating video player and continue multi-tasking with PiP feature.

Picture in Picture or PiP mode feature allows the video site to stream the video in the foreground as an overlay on the desktop screen. It enables one to detach the video player from actual video streaming sites like YouTube and floats over the screen, enabling multitasking while watching videos.

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) Mode on Firefox browser

Firefox is often regarded as among the most privacy-centric browsers, but that isn’t its sole USP. This offering from Mozilla also comes baked in with many useful tools and functionalities.

Well, it has even incorporated features you could only find via extensions on other browsers. One such entry is the PiP Mode. Also known as Picture-in-Picture mode, it condenses the video playback to one corner of your screen.

The benefit? It straightaway translates to the ease of multitasking, as you could continue with your work using another app and simultaneously check out everything intriguing that’s going on in that video.

PiP Mode enabled on Firefox example

Furthermore, since that PiP window acts as an overlay, you could drag and drop it to any corner of your screen. Then with just a single click, you could play/pause the video, close it, or expand it to its default size – all from within the PiP mode.

info icon
Note: YouTube already has a Mini-player option, PiP mode. Click the mini-player icon on the video control bar to start Picture-in-Picture mode.

Ultimately, PiP mode proves to be a handy alternative, without even the need to take the help of any third-party add-ons.

So, let’s now check out the steps to enable Firefox’s Picture-in-Picture mode and the instructions to control and tweak its settings effectively.

Enable Picture in Picture (PiP) Mode

By default, the picture-in-picture mode option is enabled on the Firefox browser. However, for some reason, if it isn’t working, then you can re-enable the option under the Browsing settings section on Firefox.

Here are the steps to enable the picture-in-picture video controls option in Firefox:

  1. Launch the Firefox browser on your PC.
  2. Click on the More horizontal 3bar icon menu situated at the top right.
  3. Select Options from the menu list.
    Firefox Options menu list
  4. Scroll down to the Browsing section.
  5. Click on the checkbox Enable picture-in-picture video controls.
    Enable Picture in Picture Video Control in Firefox Browser

This will enable an option to display the picture-in-picture icon on the video streaming player. Irrespective of which streaming site you visit, an overlay pip mode icon will appear on the video screen.

PiP Mode via Icon

Now that we have enabled the picture-in-picture option on Firefox, we can quickly start the PiP mode stream on the websites.

Here are the steps to launch the PiP on Firefox using the PiP icon:

  1. Launch the Firefox app browser.
  2. Head over to start any YouTube video on the browser.
  3. Click on the Watch in Picture-in-Picture icon on the right inside the video.
    Watch YouTube video in Picture-in-Picture modeThe PiP mode option will be displayed via a small icon if you have already used this feature.
    PiP mode option in Firefox on YouTube video

After clicking on the PiP icon, the video will minimize size and move to the lower right corner of your screen. At the same time, the video player would also notify you that the video is being played in PiP mode.

This video is playing in Picture in Picture Mode on YouTube Firefox

You can now drag and drop this overlay window to any corner of your screen across any of the opened tabs. Likewise, when you hover the mouse cursor over this window, you shall see player controls covered in the following section.

So this was one way of trying out Firefox’s Picture in Picture mode. But that’s not the only one. Some popular video streaming sites (such as YouTube) also support enabling the said option via the Context Menu.

PiP Mode via Context Menu

This option may not be supported on all video streaming sites, but you can try it. I checked the DailyMotion, and it doesn’t have the context menu for PiP mode. However, it’s working on the YouTube videos without any issues.

Here are the steps to enable the picture-in-picture menu using the context menu:

  1. Open any video of your choice on YouTube.
  2. Right-click on the video, and you shall get the default YouTube context menu.
    YouTube Video Default Context Menu
  3. Right-click again on the same video, and you will get the Firefox context menu this time.
    Enable Picture in Picture menu from the Context Options list
  4. Select the Picture-in-Picture option from the context menu.

The video would now start playing in picture-in-picture mode. The rest of the controls will be similar to what we had in the previous section.

Picture-in-Picture mode controls

The Firefox Picture-in-Picture mini-player has all the control that you need. If you click on the mini-player icon, it will exit the PiP mode and take you back to the default viewing screen. We also have the option to Play and Pause the video on the bottom right.

Picture in Picture Mode controls

On the other hand, if you wish to close the video, click on the X icon at the top right.

Bottom Line

So with this, we conclude the guide on the steps to enable the Picture-in-Picture or PiP Mode in Firefox.

Writing transcripts of the live tech events always proved challenging since I constantly switched between my Docs and YouTube tab. But thanks to this nifty built-in feature of Firefox, it has streamlined this multitasking functionality.

Plus, the fact that it could be enabled with just two right clicks makes it more accessible in terms of accessibility.

What are your views on Firefox allowing the Picture-in-Picture or PiP mode for all streaming sites? Do share with us in the comments section below.

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Sadique Hassan

Sadique is a Bachelor of Computer Application in Computer Science and an MBA professional. He became a tech writer by choice and has continued pursuing it for the last 7+ years. He is keenly interested in open-source technology like Android and also loves troubleshooting the tech. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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