How to Pin Netflix to desktop

According to multiple reports, Netflix is testing a new pop-out player for those who use Netflixs website to stream their favorite shows. While I tend to only use Netflixs apps, theres something elegant about this new approachif you have access to the feature, clicking a little button on Netflixs player will launch it in a separate floating window. This window sits on top of anything else youre doing on your computer, which means its the perfect way to distract yourself when you have eight hours of joyful spreadsheets awaiting you at work.

The problem? This is what Netflix sent to Engadget when the site asked about the feature:

You dont need to wait on Netflix to let you try this featureif it ever does. With a tiny tweak or two, you can create a Netflix pop-out player of your very own.

Chrome

To turn any HTML5 video player into a pop-out player, just create a bookmarklet. Create a bookmark for any site, and then right-click on it and edit the bookmarks address to replace it with this code (all one line):

javascript:document.getElementsByTagName(video)[0].requestPictureInPicture();

Then, whenever youre on a website such as YouTube or Netflix, you can click on that bookmark to pop out the video into its own player. Similar to Netflixs implementation, the picture-in-picture video will sit on top of whatever youre working on. Youll have to keep Chrome open, but you dont have to be in a Chrome window to see the picture-in-picture player.

If youre having trouble getting this to work, make sure youve updated to the latest version of Chromes browser.

Firefox

Picture-in-picture functionality should be arriving with Firefox 68 (releasing on July 9). Until then, youll have to use an extension to replicate this picture-in-picture feature. Install Floating Player, and then click on the icon in your browser toolbar whenever youre watching a Netflix video. Youll have to close out the video in the original tab once the floating tab has opened up, but its... something.

Youll also notice that this pop-out player doesnt sit on top of your other windows. To fix that, grab the DeskPins app for Windows, which allows you to pin any window you want on top of others. (Pennywiseor Heliumalso work, if you dont feel like fussing with an extension+utility combination.)