The instant messaging giant, WhatsApp has launched plenty of features for both Android and iOS users this year. The Facebook-owned company has released features to stop fake news and other features which improve the messaging experience for the users. Recently, WhatsApp has launched the Picture-in-Picture mode for Android which allows the users to watch videos shared from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to be played in the chat screen itself. This way, users viewing the video in PiP mode will be able to continue texting their contact or scroll the chat screen without needing to pause the video. To recall, the PiP mode was rolled out to iOS users earlier this year. Now, WhatsApp is rolling out the same feature to its WhatsApp Web users as well, meaning if you're a WhatsApp Web user, you can watch videos from YouTube right inside the same chat window.
Picture in Picture Mode Being Rolled Out in Stages
As per the latest reports, the PiP mode is being rolled out to all the users of WhatsApp Web in stages globally. By the end of this week, the feature is expected to be rolled out to all Web users. WABetaInfo has reported that the new feature comes with the version 0.3.1846 of WhatsApp and the users won’t have to manually install the update to get this feature. The popular blog updating about WhatsApp also noted that whenever a user opens WhatsApp, the website checks if there is an update available and it downloads the same. Still, in case you want to check if your WhatsApp version is updated to 0.3.1846, you can navigate to WhatsApp Web > Settings > Help. In case you are running an older version of WhatsApp, clear the cache and then restart the browser to trigger the new update download.
To test the feature, open any YouTube, Instagram or Facebook video link. You will see a bigger video thumbnail this time around with a floating box which plays the video over the chat screen. After the video download completes in iOS, the app also shows a PiP logo on the top left side of the video. Clicking on the logo enables the video to play while you do your work on the chat screen. The video will also continue to play when you send or receive a message, or navigate within WhatsApp. As of now, it's unknown when WhatsApp will roll out the same PiP feature to its Mac and Windows versions. As of this writing, we didn't find any update to WhatsApp app of Mac Store and YouTube links are also opening in a separate tab.
WhatsApp to Also Deploy AI to Check Fake News
In another related development, WhatsApp has also committed that it would be deploying an Artificial Intelligence tool to check the spreading of fake messages on the platform. This outcome has been received after rounds of talks with the Indian government, who wanted the content and circulation on WhatsApp to be regulated in some manner to stop spreading violent news or possibly threatening material.
