One of the lesser known features of macOS Sierra is the ability to watch videos in Picture in Picture mode. Handy, because a movie appears in a separate window that you can place anywhere on your screen. This is how you use YouTube Picture-in-Picture with macOS Sierra.
YouTube Picture-in-Picture
Although many video players have their own Picture-in-Picture button, such as Vimeo. YouTube is the exception to this rule. Annoying, because there is a good chance that you will watch most of your online videos here.
Good news, then, that you can still get YouTube Picture-in-Picture working with a small detour, which only takes a few seconds longer if you know what to do. It is important to remember that you must run at least macOS Sierra on your iMac or MacBook to use this function.
Using YouTube Picture-in-Picture
- Open YouTube and go to the video you want to watch
- Click twice with your right mouse button in the window, or use Ctrl and click twice on the trackpad of your MacBook
- In the new menu that appears, click on ‘Picture in Picture’
If you have completed the steps above, you will see the YouTube video being pulled loose from the website, and you can resize it manually. You can also place the video player anywhere on your screen, which comes in handy if you also want to get some work done while watching a video.
Chances are YouTube will add its own Picture-in-Picture button to the menu bar in the future, but until then, this is the next best thing.