With Android 13 for Android phones in testing, Android TV 13 is also getting some attention. Since Android TV 7, users were able to use PiP (picture-in-picture) mode to display the current playing content over the menus. That’s been a useful feature, and now it’s getting better. In Android TV 13, the PiP will support more aspect ratios.
People like using the PiP feature because it lets you continue to watch your content while you’re navigating the interface. It’s great, but it was held back by one thing. The supported aspect ratios were limited. As more content comes out with different aspect ratios, you’ll want the feature to adapt and display into those different ratios.
Android TV 13 will show more aspect ratios in the PiP mode
Android TV is still a growing platform even though Google introduced Google TV not too long ago. Google’s testing out the 13th version of the Android TV platform now. This new version will bring a useful change to the PiP mode.
As it stands, the PiP can only show a range of aspect ratios between 1:2.39 and 2.39:1. That’s a good range, and it encapsulates a lot of content. However, different forms of content are being presented in different ratios.
According to Esper’s Mishaal Rahman, Android TV 13 will allow for content that’s wider and taller than the current range. Not only will the pictures have expanded aspect ratios, but they could also be moved around the screen.
There could also be a split-screen mode
It seems that Google wants to do more with the PiP mode. Aside from adding more aspect ratios, Android TV 13 could have a split-screen function. In the code, there’s a new method to Activity called “setPreferDockBigOverlays”. What this will do is treat the PiP as a big overlay, and that’ll allow it to be docked.
When the window is docked, it appears that the other content on the screen will move to be docked alongside the PiP. This means that both the UI and the picture will share half of the screen. That’ll be great for people who want to clearly see what’s going on in their show or movie while navigating through the content.
2022-03-29 15:08:26