PiPHero For Mac

When you have lots of windows open at the same time, screen space becomes an issue, especially on smaller MacBooks. There are ways to manage this, such as a picture-in-picture mode, which is widely used in certain apps and devices.

PiPHero introduces a PiP system that should work with every Mac app and provide you with a great deal of flexibility in window management. It lets you create a resizable, always-on-top version of a window that replicates its contents but is non-interactive.

Once launched, you’ll find PiPHero running in the menu bar. It detects active windows automatically, and you just have to click any of them to create a picture-in-picture window; this can be moved around and resized freely, and it will remain on top of regular windows.

The app’s PiP mode replicates the contents of the original window exactly, including the mouse cursor if it happens to be moving over it. This is great for compatibility, but it does come with a few caveats.

To start with, if you want the PiP window to be refreshed instead of a snapshot of the original app, it needs to remain on your desktop. Hiding it will prevent any updates, and minimizing it will lead to a distorted PiP view.

It’s worth noting that in some cases, such as when a YouTube video is active, the PiP replica will only be updated if the browser window is in the foreground, as the video feed is paused otherwise. This can make the app less versatile, and it needs to be tested for every app you wish to use it with.

If you attempt to resize the original window after creating a PiP view, the PiP widow’s aspect ratio will not be updated. You’ll have to close it and create it again.

You can close any active PiP windows by clicking the button in their top-left corner. Resizing works just like with any macOS window, but remember not to increase its dimensions past those of the original window, as it will appear blurred.

In the end, PiPHero’s functionality isn’t all that complex, as it essentially captures the contents of a window and replicates it into an always-on-top replica. It should be compatible with pretty much everything, but it has some limitations that hinder users in many cases. It's also Electron-based, so it's not exactly lightweight.