Netflix Is Testing A Better Way To Watch Video

Watching Netflix on desktop is fine unless you want to multitask, at which point a convoluted series of window adjustments and resizing is necessary to keep both the video player and other applications visible. The company may be planning to do something about that in the near future, however, at least based on a test currently visible to some desktop users.

A small number of Netflix users report seeing a new pop-out player option when streaming videos on desktop. This pop-out player is exactly what it sounds like — a type of player window that breaks free from the browser tab and reduces itself to a small section of the display.

The pop-out player remains visible on top of other windows, enabling the user to position it in a corner and move it around whenever it's in the way. This eliminates the need to manually pop the video player tab free from the browser window, then manually resize it.

A brief demonstration of the new pop-out player was recently published by Engadget, which received a somewhat amusing response from Netflix regarding the option: an image that reads 'This is only a test.' It remains unclear at this time how many desktop users are seeing the test.

Netflix regularly conducts tests on its platform — we've seen many of them come and go over the years — and not all of them are implemented as public features. The company has scrapped tests in the past and there's no guarantee it will proceed to launch this latest one.