This afternoon, in fact we cannot rule out that it arrives as I write this article, Mozilla will make the launch of Firefox 71 official. It will do so by updating the news page and making it downloadable from the official website (no FTP). One of the outstanding novelties of the new version is that it brings the option to watch Picture-in-Picture videos activated by default… for Windows. Linux users will have to wait a little longer, more specifically until Firefox 72.
On the same day that a new installment of the fox browser arrives, Mozilla begins a version dance in which the Beta and Nightly channels also offer more up-to-date software. Today, the Beta channel has started offering Firefox 72, while Nightly has done the same with Firefox 73. A novelty that we have seen will be available for Linux is the option to watch Picture-in-Picture videos on Linux.
Firefox 72 to offer PiP on Linux starting January 7
Once the option is activated, and in Linux it is already in the first beta of Firefox 72, viewing the video in a floating window is very simple: when you move the pointer over the video, a small blue box appears on the right with an icon that seems to make its function clear. If not, hovering over the box opens and we can read the Picture-in-Picture text. When clicking on it, something that I think they should improve before the launch is official, the floating window appears, but it is very very small, so we have to resize it a bit like we would do with any other window of an operating system with desk.
If we want to enjoy this function in Linux right now, from Firefox 68 we can activate it manually by following these steps:
- In the address bar, we put "about: config" without the quotes.
- If it is the first time that we do it or if we have not asked that we not go out again, we have to accept the warning of the danger of entering that section.
- In the search box, we put "picture" without the quotes.
- From the results that appear, we right click on media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.enabled and we choose "Modify". The value has to change from "false" to "true". We have to do the same in the entry "media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.video-toggle.enabled", or else we will not see the blue button on the right from where we can activate it.
- We restart Firefox and we will have everything configured.
Firefox 71, where the function will already be activated in Windows, will appear as an update at any time from your official website.
Very good compadre, I'm going to make a video of it, I just tested it and it works very well, the bad thing is that you cannot close the window of the video source and you have to keep it in another tab. Greetings.