An analysis of the latest Google Messages beta indicates that support for YouTube picture-in-picture within the app is going the way of the dodo.
Google is notorious for abandoning projects, big or small. There’s an entire site dedicated to chronicling everything Google has sent the way of the dodo. And now it seems a useful feature — YouTube picture-in-picture — is being removed from Google Messages, and I have no clue why.
Introduced back in 2022, the concept was quite simple: let users watch a YouTube video within the Messages app. It was similar to how shared YouTube links work in WhatsApp, where the app shows the thumbnail and plays the video in a popup player. This removes the friction of having to open the YouTube app every time your friend sends you a clip.
