One of the most significant upgrades in Android TV 14 (which supports both Google TV and Android TV) is the return of picture-in-picture (PiP), which hasn’t been available on Android TV for years: as Google announced back in May, “qualified” TVs running Android TV 14 will support the feature. However, a new report suggests that even if it will be available on your particular TV, it won’t be the PiP feature you expect or want.
Android Police’s report says that picture-in-picture doesn’t work as well on Android TV as it does on Android phones. And it excludes some of the apps where you’d expect the feature.
What is Google doing with Android TV PiP?
According to the report, Google restricts the picture-in-picture feature to four types of app categories, with apps requiring special approval from Google. The categories are:
- Communication services (video and voice calls)
- Smart home integrations (doorbells and baby monitors)
- Health monitoring (fitness tracker)
- Live news ticker (sports results and stock ticker)
As you can see, there’s no category for the best streaming video services like Netflix or even YouTube. And there also don’t seem to be any other types of apps you might want to use while watching TV, like watching a Twitch stream or watching one sports game full screen and another windowed.
Even this limited functionality may not be available on your TV. That’s because many Android TVs are built to be inexpensive and often include relatively inexpensive processors without much RAM. So it’s unlikely that some of the cheapest Android or Google TVs will get this feature at all.
There is good news, though. If the new feature does roll out to your TV (which will likely include some of the best TVs on the market, as Google TV is used by Sony, TCL, and Hisense—and of course, the Google TV streamer), it specifically prohibits apps from using PiP windows for ads and triggering PiP mode without your permission.
The app category restrictions described here apply to system-wide picture-in-picture features, but the feature will also be available to individual developers — and that means you may be able to get the picture-in-picture features you want from third-party apps on your TV. Still, the limits Google is imposing on its own version of the feature seem restrictive — why should we be able to play baseball in the corner while we get smoked? Emily in Paris Season 4 after its recent debut.
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