Google Chrome becomes a ‘picture-in-picture’ app

As competition in the browser market heats up thanks to innovations from Arc and other startups, Google is preparing to make significant changes to the way its Chrome browser operates. The company announced on Wednesday that it is introducing a new feature, “minimized custom tabs,” that will allow users to switch between native apps and their web content with a single tap. When you do so, the custom tab becomes a small, picture-in-picture window that floats on top of the native app content.

The new addition focuses on the use of custom tabs, a feature in the Android browser that gives app developers a way to add a customized browser experience directly to their apps. Instead of opening the user’s actual browser or webview — which doesn’t support all the features of the web platform — custom tabs let users stay in their app while browsing. For developers, the use of custom tabs can increase app engagement and reduce the risk of users leaving the app and not returning.

By turning custom tabs into picture-in-picture windows, the transition to a web experience can feel more natural – and it will feel like you are still inside the native app. This change can also be useful for developers who are sending their customers to a website to sign up for an account or subscription, as it makes it easier for the user to go back and forth between the website and the native app.

When minimized to a picture-in-picture window, custom tabs can be docked to the side of the screen. When the page is maximized, tapping the down arrow minimizes it to a picture-in-picture window once again.

The new web experience comes at a time when Google is making accessing the web on Android even better. With features like Circle to Search and other AI-powered integrations, people can find their way to the web through gestures like circling or highlighting items.

This change is rolling out in the latest version of Chrome (M124) and will be automatically applied to wherever developers are already using Chrome’s custom tabs. Google noted that this change is affecting the Chrome browser, but it expects other browser makers to adopt similar functionality.