How to Create a Floating Netflix Player on Your Desktop
According to numerous reports, Netflix is testing a new pop-up player for those using the Netflix website to stream their favorite shows. While I usually only use Netflix apps, there is something elegant about this new approach – if you have access to this feature, pressing a small button on the Netflix player will launch it in a separate floating window. This window sits on top of everything you do on your computer, which means it’s the perfect distraction when eight hours of fun spreadsheets await you at work.
Problem? Here’s what Netflix sent Engadget when the site asked about the feature:
You don’t have to wait for Netflix to let you try this feature – if it ever comes up. With a couple of tiny tweaks, you can create your own Netflix pop-up player.
Chromium
To turn any HTML5 video player into a popup player, simply create a bookmarklet. Bookmark any site and then right click it and edit the bookmark url to replace it with this code (all on one line):
javascript:document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0].requestPictureInPicture();
Then, when you’re on a website like YouTube or Netflix, you can click that bookmark to play the video in its own player. Similar to Netflix’s implementation, picture-in-picture video will sit on top of whatever you’re working on. You will need to keep Chrome open, but you do not need to be in the Chrome window to see the picture-in-picture player.
If you are having trouble getting this to work, make sure you update your Chrome browser to the latest version .
Fire fox
The picture-in-picture feature is slated to appear in Firefox 68 (which will be released on July 9). Until then, you’ll have to use an extension to play this picture-in-picture feature. Install Floating Player and then click the icon in the browser toolbar whenever you watch a Netflix video. You’ll have to close the video in the original tab when the floating tab opens, but that’s … something.
You will also notice that this popup player is not on top of your other windows. To fix this, grab the DeskPins Windows app, which lets you dock any window on top of others. ( Pennywise or Helium will also work if you don’t feel like messing with the extension + utility combo.)