Chrome adds picture-in-picture web browsing for Android apps

Opening a webpage inside an app is about to get a little more pleasant — in some Android apps, at least. The Chrome M124 update adds the ability to open in-app webpages in picture-in-picture mode, letting you swap between the webpage and the app without closing your browsing session.

The feature is coming to the Android apps that use Chrome Custom Tabs, which let developers provide customized browsing experiences within their apps. If it’s available in an app you use, you’ll see a new down arrow in the top-left corner of an in-app webpage. Tap the arrow, and the webpage will minimize into a floating window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. You can tap the window to open the tab back up.

This feature actually seems pretty handy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to close an in-app webpage to refer to something inside the app, only to lose whatever I was looking at. The feature is only available in apps that use Chrome-based mobile browsers for now, but hopefully others will follow suit.