How to use the Apple TV picture-in-picture mode to watch your HomeKit security camera

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Picture-in-picture mode is an option on the Apple TV. With tvOS 15.4 update, Apple has made it easier to view a live feed from HomeKit cameras in a small window on top of any other content you are playing on your Apple TV.

If you want to keep an eye on the baby's room while you watch a movie or watch a big game, this is a useful feature.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Here is a step-by-step guide to enable and use Apple TV to view a HomeKit camera live. We used the second generation of the remote, which uses a touch surface, and the first generation, which uses a clickpad.

• While you’re watching a show, long-press the TV button on the Apple TV’s Siri Remote to open the Apple TV Control Center.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

• Use the clickpad ring to scroll down to the HomeKit icon.
• Select the icon by pressing on the clickpad and scroll through your cameras to choose the feed you want to view.
• Alternatively, you can press the Siri button on the remote and ask to view the camera by name, as in: “Show me the Arlo porch camera.”
• The live camera feed will pull up in full screen.
• Now, use the clickpad ring to navigate to the picture-in-picture icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

• Select the icon, and your camera will move to picture-in-picture mode in front of the content you were previously playing.
• To control the mode from the smaller picture, press the TV button to show additional controls on the picture-in-picture screen.
• Here, you can switch to full screen, close picture-in-picture, or move it to one of four corners of the TV screen.
• In full-screen mode, you can choose to view all your compatible cameras and switch to a different one.
• You can also switch to viewing your camera in full screen and your show in picture-in-picture by swiping up on the clickpad to show playback controls on the main screen (including picture-in-picture).