Facebook owned WhatsApp keeps testing new features in its beta version of the app. This beta testing helps WhatsApp gather enough feedback and iron out bugs from a feature before it’s rolled out on the official channel. All the new features that make their way to the official channel are first availed on the beta channel, and this time around, WhatsApp has brought in picture-in-picture (PiP) mode support for video calls on its beta version of Android.
WhatsApp beta version 2.17.265 for Android now supports PiP mode for video calls on Android O. With this, users can now shrink the ongoing video call to a floating window and carry on with other tasks like replying to another message in a WhatsApp chat or browsing through the Facebook news feed.
To shrink the video call screen to a floating window, you simply need to tap on the back button. If you do this on any other device running Android Nougat and below, the video call will be paused and only the audio will continue.
Needless to say, if you want to try this feature, you will have to be on WhatsApp beta version 2.17.265 and have a device running Android O. Also, as the PiP mode is currently only supported on Android O, users on other versions of Android may not be able to use this feature, unless WhatsApp decides to bring in the feature support for those versions of Android as well.
If you are having a device running developer preview of Android O, you can try this feature by enrolling in WhatsApp beta program or downloading the apk file from here.
