Today we have great news for those of you who use our favourite instant messaging app with Android devices. Thanks to the latest 2.17.265 update, WhatsApp users with Android 8.0 devices will be able to enjoy a new, useful functionality.
According to Android Police, a new “Picture-in-Picture” mode is already available on Android O Developer Preview. So, how does it work? The PiP option is designed to allow users to continue texting (or doing other things, in other words it is the right feature for multitasking) while having a video conversation.
The video in fact will be compressed into a floating window that users can move around. Users can also enlarge it by simply tapping on it, and then the video gets back to its normal size. Furthermore, by swiping it down, the call will be put in the background and the video gets paused. That’s great, isn’t it?
Obviously, being a beta, if you want to install this latest 2.17.265 beta version of WhatsApp on your Android device you have to join the beta tester program on the Play Store. An alternative way to download this latest update of WhatsApp is to install the APK manually downloading it from some safe sites such as AKP Mirror.
As we said above, this improvement is available only for Android O users, and we are currently not able to tell you if and when it will be added to the other platforms. For example, Android Nougat users of WhatsApp know that currently, when having a video call, the video gets paused and the audio continues if they are having a text conversation or are doing other things on their smartphone.
But obviously WhatsApp is not the only app that is introducing this new Picture-in-Picture option. Many other competitors are developing this functionality, that you can already find on Chrome, Play Movies, Google’s Duo and VLC Beta.