On Android tablets, closing a fullscreen video picture-in-picture (PiP) window in Chrome does not stop the media — the audio keeps playing in the background as if the video were still open. Android phones behave correctly and suspend playback, so the problem is specific to large-form-factor devices, where the kAndroidEnableBackgroundMediaLargeFormFactors feature flag keeps background media alive and overrides the expected "closing PiP means stop playback" behaviour. The practical impact is that users think they have stopped a video but audio continues until they hunt it down in the notification shade or the source app. A fix titled along the lines of "Suspend media when the fullscreen video PiP window is closed" has been merged via Gerrit change c/chromium/src/+/8162061 and appears in Chrome Canary 153.0.7991.0.
Steps to reproduce:
- On an Android tablet, open Chrome and start playing a video (e.g. on YouTube in the browser).
- Put the video into fullscreen picture-in-picture mode so it continues in a floating window.
- Close the picture-in-picture window.
- Observe that the audio track keeps playing in the background instead of stopping.
Solution: (upcoming) Update to a Chrome build containing the merged change — currently Chrome Canary 153.0.7991.0; the fix still has to progress through the Dev, Beta and Stable channels, which reporting suggests could take months.
Workaround: Manually stop the playback after closing the PiP window, either from the Android notification pane's media controls or by opening the source app (e.g. YouTube) and pausing there.
Severity: Minor (annoying and affects a commonly used feature, but causes no crash, data loss, or security exposure, and an easy manual workaround exists)
First seen: August 2026 (first public reporting; the underlying behaviour predates it, exact origin unknown)
Affected product: Google Chrome
Affected platforms: Android tablets (large-form-factor Android devices); Android phones are not affected
Affected versions: Chrome for Android stable, Beta and Dev channels as of August 2026 (exact first affected version unknown)
Fixed versions: Chrome Canary 153.0.7991.0 (not yet in Dev, Beta or Stable)
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