Google is notorious for abandoning projects, big and small. There's an entire website dedicated to tracking everything Google has thrown in the trash. And now a useful feature – YouTube picture-in-picture – seems to be being removed from Google Messages, and I have no idea why.
Introduced in 2022, the concept was quite simple: users could watch a YouTube video in the Messages app. It was similar to sharing YouTube links in WhatsApp, where the app would display the thumbnail and play the video in a pop-up player, eliminating the hassle of having to open the YouTube app every time your friend sent you a clip.
A recent APK teardown of the latest beta found that all the code required for this feature to work has been removed from Google Messages. I tried it myself with a public version of the app and while I can still see thumbnails, tapping the link opens the YouTube app.
Yes, my friend took the opportunity to rickroll me. | Image credit — PhoneArena
I have no idea why Google would remove such a quality of life feature. Maybe YouTube is about to make some changes that will make picture-in-picture impossible. Or maybe this will somehow become another YouTube Premium feature. Regardless of the reason, the Google graveyard is growing by the day.
Google Glass was another project that Google abandoned years ago and I'm still not over it. But now that the tech giant is going all-in on AI with its flagship model Gemini, I'm hoping that the hinted-at AI-powered AR smart glasses become a reality.
As someone who keeps his fingers crossed for the XR (Augmented Reality) industry, I hope for a spiritual successor to Google Glass.