TL; DR
- Google TV is finally adding support for picture-in-picture mode, which puts app content in a tiny window that covers the screen, in Android 14 for TV.
- Picture-in-picture mode has been supported on phones since Android 8.0 was released almost seven years ago.
- However, picture-in-picture on Google TV will not be enabled for media content.
Most smartphone screens aren’t large enough to comfortably display two full apps side-by-side at the same time, which can be a problem when you’re trying to get some work done while watching an educational video or livestream. This is where picture-in-picture (PiP) mode comes into play. PiP was introduced in Android 8.0 and allows you to watch videos in a small window that sits on top of other apps. Although PiP has been part of the Android platform for almost seven years, it is not supported on some versions of Android, notably Google TV. But that will change with the upcoming Android 14 update for TV.
Google TV, if you’re not aware, is based on Android TV OS, a version of AOSP designed for televisions. Since the Android TV OS is based on AOSP, it has many of the same features. However, some basic Android features have been removed from Android TV, or rather, are not required to turn it on. Picture-in-picture is an example of an Android feature that does not need to be enabled on Android TV OS devices. While a few Android TVs, like the 2019 NVIDIA Shield TV Pro and the 2020 Sony X900H, support PiP, many of the top Android TVs don’t.
Android TV devices tend to have small amounts of RAM, which is a problem for multitasking features like PiP. As a result, Android TV manufacturers usually just disable PiP in their software versions because it might not work well. While the decision to enable PiP on Android TV OS devices is up to OEMs, they don’t even have the option to enable it on Google TV devices. That’s because, according to Google, PiP support “wasn’t supported at all on Google TV before Android 13.” However, with the upcoming update to Android 14 for TV, Google TV devices will finally support picture-in-picture mode, although there are a few caveats.
The first caveat is that PiP mode may not be available on every Google TV device running Android 14 for TV. The reason for this is the same reason the feature isn’t widely available on Android TV devices: memory. Google says PiP is enabled “on select eligible devices [their] hardware compatibility criteria,” although they did not elaborate on what those criteria were. Android TV app developers will need to query the package manager flag to see if PiP support is enabled on a particular device.
Another caveat is that Google won’t allow media content to be displayed in a picture-in-picture window, which is a big departure from how the feature is used on mobile devices. This means you won’t be able to, say, keep a YouTube video open while searching for another video to play. So what will you be able to do with PiP on Google TV? Here are the four categories of content that Google will approve for picture-in-picture mode on TV:
- Communication use cases, such as video or voice calls.
- Smart home integrations, like connected doorbells or baby monitors.
- Health use cases, such as fitness tracking or health monitoring.
- Use cases for tickers, such as live sports scores or news and stock tickers.
Android TV apps must explicitly declare categories that correspond to their intended use of PiP mode. This declaration must be added to application manifest files, giving Google an easy way to audit them.
While it’s a bit annoying that Google is limiting which apps can use PiP on Android TV, it makes sense. Google wants PiP activities to enhance or complement the experience of another full-screen activity. Apps that want to support PiP mode on Android TV must adhere to some basic TV app quality guidelines, many of which make sense. The guidelines include restrictions on applications that may not display promotional materials or ads using the PiP window, may not use excessive resources or take audio focus when in PiP mode, and may not automatically enter PiP mode without explicit user action, between other things.
Due to the inconsistent availability of PiP on Android TV so far, many apps built for the platform don’t even bother to support the mode. Hopefully, with the introduction of PiP as an officially supported feature of the Android TV platform, more apps will add support for it. If Google hadn’t decided to skip Android 13 for TV last year, we could have had this feature a whole year earlier, but better late than never. Developers interested in adding PiP support to their Android TV apps should refer to Google’s documentation, as there are several PiP-related features (such as clarity APIs and the ability to set titles and subtitles) that are specific to televisions.