Setting the foundation to allow for pseudo multi-window experience?
Android has long supported picture-in-picture (PiP) functionality, allowing apps to display videos and other streams inside a floating window as an overlay on top of other content. Android 13 is set to improve on this functionality, allowing PiP windows that are much taller or wider than the previous min/max specifications for aspect ratios. The improvement is coming to some of the best Android TV boxes out there that will receive the update.
As discovered by Esper’s Mishaal Rahman in his Android 13 deep dive, PiP is set to lose its default restriction to only allow aspect ratios between 1:2.39 to 2.39:1 on certain devices. For reference, many movies are shown in 2.35:1, which is usually the widest aspect ratio used in entertainment, so the previous limitation made it clear that PiP was primarily meant for watching movies and shows in the background.
The fact that Google developers are breaking up this limitation could imply that developers can use PiP for even more applications in the future that require more outlandish aspect ratios. One could imagine a video conferencing app displaying a strip of participants at the edge of a big screen. It could also be handy for TV guides and similar apps. Devices have to support Android 13’s new expanded PiP multi-window mode for developers to take advantage of these taller and wider aspect ratios. It’s likely that this new functionality is only coming to Android TV devices.
Thanks to the lifted restrictions on aspect ratios, Android TV 13 could also create pseudo multi-window environments. There’s a new setPreferDockBigOverlays activity that allows for expanded PiP windows to be docked to a side, with another activity remaining in full view next to it. While Android TV doesn’t support proper split-screen, this probably comes as close as it can be for the TV platform.
Android TV 13 will additionally make it possible to move around PiP windows using your remote’s D Pad, allowing you to stash these extra tall or extra wide windows in a fitting spot.
Android first introduced support for PiP in Android TV 7.0, with Google quickly expanding support to regular Android in version 8.0. With Android 13’s latest changes, PiP looks set to be expanded with even more capabilities, making it even more ubiquitous than it already is for many apps.
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