I checked my bracket during the second half of a Final Four game last year and came back to find the score had changed and I’d missed the play. The Final Four starts today. Your bracket is in one app, the game is in another, and you don’t have to keep switching.
Quick answer: Android Picture-in-Picture is a feature that shrinks any video into a small floating window so it stays visible while you use other apps. To enable it: open Settings, tap Apps, tap the app (e.g., ESPN), tap Picture-in-picture, toggle Allow picture-in-picture on. The toggle is buried per-app inside Settings → Apps → [app name] → Picture-in-picture — there is no central video settings menu.
Your phone can show both at once
Picture-in-Picture shrinks your video into a small floating window that sits on top of whatever else you’re doing. Watch the game in the corner while you check your bracket, scroll your feed, or answer a text.
How to use it
Most video apps support it. While watching a video, just swipe up or press the home button. The video shrinks to a floating window automatically.
If it doesn’t work, the setting might be off:
- Open Settings
- Tap Apps
- Tap the app you want (YouTube, ESPN, Netflix, etc.)
- Tap Picture-in-picture
- Toggle Allow picture-in-picture on
You have to do this per app. Each one has its own toggle.
Why you’ve never used it
The toggle is buried inside each app’s individual settings page — not in Display, not in a central video menu, but in Settings → Apps → [specific app] → Picture-in-picture. Nobody browses there. The feature has been in Android since 2017.
And most people don’t know the gesture. Swiping up during a video feels like you’re closing it. The first time the video shrinks instead of disappearing, it’s a surprise.
The bigger picture
Your phone already supports watching a video while doing something else. The toggle is just per-app, the menu is buried, and the gesture is unintuitive. That’s why we built TrueTo. One place for the settings that actually help.
Enjoy the games. Keep an eye on that bracket.