There are a number of hidden features on your Mac that are intended to give flexibility to those who desire it while remaining hidden from others who do not. If you’re not looking, you can potentially miss out on certain opportunities. Fortunately, some of the best hidden features are readily available, such as Safari’s built-in Picture-in-Picture mode.

Similar to previous modes, PiP in Safari allows you to reduce the size of a video you’re watching to a manageable floating window so you can work on other things while you watch. The feature can also be enabled in a number of ways, which we’ll explain below.

Don’t miss the complete list of devices that support Circle to Search and how to locate your iPhone’s stored Wi-Fi passwords.

How to locate the PiP button in Safari

In the event that a video is playing in Safari, navigate to the window’s top address bar, right-click the blue audio button next to the website URL, and then select Enter Picture in Picture. After that, the video will switch to a floating window on its own.

Enter the image in Safari’s Picture Settings.
From here, you can also set up auto-play preferences and mute the tab.
Aguilar Nelson
The floating window that plays the video will snap onto any of the four corners of your desktop and will show up above all other active apps, including Safari. To change the window’s size, move the mouse pointer over its corners and edges, then click and drag to enlarge or reduce it.

Additionally, there are two buttons on the window: one to play or pause the video, and another to return the floating window to the online browser. The X button on the upper left corner of the floating window can also be used to simply close it.

Safari’s floating window with a video playing
You can adjust the size and position of the floating video window on your desktop.
Aguilar Nelson

Additional methods for turning on Picture in Picture on MacOS

There are two other ways to use Picture in Picture if you have more than one video playing in Safari or don’t see the blue audio button in the address bar.

The first method is to click the PiP button in the playing controls of the video. Your options are limited because not all video players will feature the PiP button. The Open Picture in Picture mode option can also be found by simply hovering your mouse over the different buttons. The PiP button looks like two rectangles with an arrow going from one to the other.

YouTube’s PiP button
On YouTube, you’ll see Picture in Picture between the Full Screen and AirPlay buttons.
Aguilar Nelson
You can right-click the movie and check to see if you receive an Enter Picture in Picture option if there isn’t a PiP button. You may only need to right-click once on other websites to locate the PiP setting, but on YouTube, you must right-click twice to access the relevant menu.