Guide
How to keep a video playing while you work
You have something on in one tab and work in another. Switch across and the video is gone — still playing, still making noise, just nowhere you can see it. Switch back to find it and you have lost your place in the work instead.
macOS solves this properly, and hides the solution well enough that most people never find it.
Level 1
The feature that is already there
Picture in Picture lifts a video out of the page into a small floating window that stays on top of everything — other windows, other apps, other Spaces. It is built into Safari and it works on any ordinary web video.
Two ways in, both slightly awkward:
- Right-click the video twice. The first right-click gets you YouTube's own menu; the second gets you Safari's, which has Enter Picture in Picture on it.
- Click and hold the audio icon in the address bar, which appears once something is playing.
Where it runs out: you have to ask, every single time, with a gesture most people would never guess. Nothing happens on its own, so the moment you forget, you are back to a video playing somewhere you cannot see.
Level 2
Extensions that make it one click
PiPifier is the best known. It puts a button in Safari's toolbar that pops the current video out, which replaces the double-right-click with a single obvious click. It is free, it is open source, and it works on any HTML5 video rather than a fixed list of sites.
There are paid ones too, and a handful of separate floating-window apps like Helium that put a browser in an always-on-top window instead.
Where it runs out: you are still the one asking. It is one click instead of three, which is a real improvement, and it still depends on you remembering before you switch away rather than after.
Level 3
Have it happen on its own
The version that actually solves the problem is the one you never operate. You look away, the video follows you out; you come back, it goes back where it was.
Auto Picture in Picture is a Safari extension that does exactly that. When Safari reports that you are no longer looking at the tab — you switched to another one, moved to another Space, minimised the window, or covered it up — the video pops out into Picture in Picture on its own. Come back and it goes inline again, playing where it left off.
- Waits a moment first, so flicking away and straight back does not make the picture bounce
- Only acts on a video that is actually playing, so a paused one stays put
- YouTube and Twitch, each of which can be turned off separately
- Free, 440 KB, Intel or Apple Silicon, macOS 12 Monterey or later
Where it runs out: it only knows about YouTube and Twitch, because those are the sites it has permission to see. It cannot reach any other site, which is a limit and also the point.
So which one
You do this once a week
Right-click the video twice. Nothing to install, and now you know it exists.
You do it a few times a day
PiPifier. One click, free, works on every site rather than a chosen few.
You do it constantly and keep forgetting
Automatic is the only version that removes the job rather than speeding it up. Auto Picture in Picture is free and asks for access to two sites and nothing else.
It gets worse if you use workspaces. Anything that puts windows on separate screens or desktops means video disappears constantly, because you are moving away from it dozens of times an hour rather than twice. If that sounds like your setup, the automatic version stops being a convenience and starts being the only one that works. hyprmac, our tiling window manager, is free and has the same problem built into how it works — which is why this extension exists at all.
Common questions
How do I put a YouTube video into Picture in Picture on a Mac?
In Safari, right-click the video twice. The first right-click gives you YouTube's own menu; the second gives you Safari's, which has Enter Picture in Picture on it. You can also click and hold the audio icon in the address bar. Both work, and both are the reason most people never find the feature.
Why does my video stop being visible when I switch tabs?
It does not stop playing, it just goes behind whatever you switched to. Picture in Picture is the fix: it lifts the video into a small floating window that stays on top of everything, including other apps and other Spaces.
Is there a way to make it happen automatically?
Not built in. macOS will put a video into Picture in Picture when you ask, but it will never decide to on your own behalf. That is what extensions are for, and there are only a couple that do it without you clicking anything.
Does this work on Twitch as well as YouTube?
The built-in feature works on any HTML5 video, which includes both. Extensions vary — some are YouTube-only. Auto Picture in Picture supports YouTube and Twitch, each of which can be switched off separately.
Does a Picture in Picture window stay on top of full-screen apps?
Yes. That is the whole point of it: the floating window sits above other windows, other apps, and other Spaces, so it survives you going off to do something else.