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I love Firefox's picture-in-picture mode for this exact reason. I think there is an extension for Chrome also.

It's in Chrome natively. But in Youtube you have to right click on the video twice.

First to trigger the Javascript context menu, and again to trigger the native one which will have the "Picture in picture" option. And there are actually two different native context menus, so if the PiP one doesn't pop up, you might have to try multiple times.

Very weird UX instead of just giving us a PiP button under the video.

It’s not weird UX when you consider why it’s so hidden: to increase “engagement” metrics (i.e. make it more likely for you to click on other videos, view/interact with ads/etc). Same reason the feature is unavailable on iOS (even though it’s been natively supported by the OS for years), unless you pay whatever google wants for a premium YouTube subscription.

There’s a great app called PiPifier, which allows you to use PiP for free on iOS.

That behaviour is so weird that it feels like an oversight. It's like we're not supposed to be able to access those options at all. A lot of people are explaining it by saying PIP mode lowers engagement so they hide it. But then why have that as a built in feature at all?

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