Does the Android phone software have PiP?

I was thinking of switching to Android from iOS. Does the Android version of Channels or Channels DVR app have Picture in Picture? Thanks.

The "p" key. I don't know its limitations but it puts the picture in the corner. I only use it to browse the guide and set recordings while still watching TV and not lose the buffer.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Does the Channels app for Android phones have Picture in Picture? Thanks.

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Can anyone confirm the 'p' key allowing for PIP on Android? If so, this just made the alleged Chromecast Sabrina device set to release at the end of the month a must have device.

Not what I call true pip. You can not watch 2 video sources at the same time. You can shrink the video to one corner to do other things then return to full screen video. Sorry but it's hard to describe what this feature really is but in other conversations here it has been referred to as pip.

For example, can you play Channels app video in a small window of your Android phone while doing something else: email, browse the web, etc.?

On an Android TV device, yes. But that's different from an Android phone.

Android TV: works; plain Android: not certain.

[Corrected post] I thought this wasn't available in Android for phone/tablet, but see below re: keyboard or remote.

Works on my Samsung s3 10" tablet. Version 3.0.1 using a rii4 BT keyboard "p" key. Doing it now. I use this feature all the time.

Interesting. I see no way to do this without an external keyboard.

You can even move the video around the screen to wherever you want. Also works using a sofabaton remote.

The Android versions report themselves as supporting PiP. It is up to your device whether or not it supports Android's native PiP implementation.

Channels itself will respond to a keypress of P to activate the PiP mode, and the currently playing video will move to a reduced floating window, while the last non-video screen displayed will become active. (This is useful for selecting a new program from the guide or library. If a new video selection is chosen, the video will resume full screen and switch to the newly selected video.)

(Android's PiP is different from Apple's. Apple will only handle video streams with its own video playback engine; Android allows the app to supply the video playback on its own, and the system simply scales the full screen playback to the PiP size. This is inherently why Android PiP is supported, but Apple's PiP is not.)

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Thank you. You are great at explaining not only what these programs are capable of but why and how. Some of us really do appreciate that.

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