react-native-video

What is react-native-video?

The react-native-video package is a versatile video playback library for React Native applications. It allows developers to embed and control video playback within their mobile apps, supporting a wide range of video formats and providing various customization options.

What are react-native-video's main functionalities?

Basic Video Playback

This feature allows you to play a video from a given URI. The video is embedded within a React Native component and can be styled using standard React Native styles.

import Video from 'react-native-video';

const BasicVideoPlayer = () => (
  <Video
    source={{ uri: 'https://www.example.com/video.mp4' }}
    style={{ width: 300, height: 200 }}
  />
);

Custom Controls

This feature enables the default video controls, such as play, pause, and seek, providing a more interactive video playback experience.

import Video from 'react-native-video';

const CustomControlsVideoPlayer = () => (
  <Video
    source={{ uri: 'https://www.example.com/video.mp4' }}
    style={{ width: 300, height: 200 }}
    controls={true}
  />
);

Event Handling

This feature allows you to handle various video playback events, such as when the video ends or if an error occurs during playback.

import Video from 'react-native-video';

const EventHandlingVideoPlayer = () => (
  <Video
    source={{ uri: 'https://www.example.com/video.mp4' }}
    style={{ width: 300, height: 200 }}
    onEnd={() => console.log('Video has ended')}
    onError={(error) => console.log('Error:', error)}
  />
);

Looping Video

This feature enables the video to loop continuously, restarting automatically when it reaches the end.

import Video from 'react-native-video';

const LoopingVideoPlayer = () => (
  <Video
    source={{ uri: 'https://www.example.com/video.mp4' }}
    style={{ width: 300, height: 200 }}
    repeat={true}
  />
);

Other packages similar to react-native-video

react-native-video-controls

The react-native-video-controls package provides a customizable set of video controls for the react-native-video component. It extends the functionality of react-native-video by adding a set of default controls that can be easily customized.

react-native-youtube

The react-native-youtube package allows you to embed YouTube videos in your React Native application. It provides a simple interface for playing YouTube videos and supports various YouTube player features, such as autoplay, fullscreen, and video quality settings.

react-native-vlc-media-player

The react-native-vlc-media-player package is a React Native wrapper for the VLC media player. It supports a wide range of video formats and provides advanced playback features, such as network streaming, subtitles, and hardware acceleration.

README

react-native-video

A <Video> component for react-native, as seen in react-native-login!

Requires react-native >= 0.40.0, for RN support of 0.19.0 - 0.39.0 please use a pre 1.0 version.

Version 3.0 breaking changes

Version 3.0 features a number of changes to existing behavior. See Updating for changes.

TOC

• Installation
• Usage
• Updating

Installation

Using npm:

npm install --save react-native-video

or using yarn:

yarn add react-native-video

iOS

Run react-native link to link the react-native-video library.

If you would like to allow other apps to play music over your video component, add:

AppDelegate.m

#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>  // import

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  ...
  [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient error:nil];  // allow
  ...
}

Note: you can also use the ignoreSilentSwitch prop, shown below.

tvOS

Run react-native link to link the react-native-video library.

react-native link doesn’t work properly with the tvOS target so we need to add the library manually.

First select your project in Xcode.

After that, select the tvOS target of your application and select « General » tab

Scroll to « Linked Frameworks and Libraries » and tap on the + button

Select RCTVideo-tvOS

Android

Run react-native link to link the react-native-video library.

Or if you have trouble, make the following additions to the given files manually:

android/settings.gradle

The newer ExoPlayer library will work for most people.

include ':react-native-video'
project(':react-native-video').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-video/android-exoplayer')

If you need to use the old Android MediaPlayer based player, use the following instead:

include ':react-native-video'
project(':react-native-video').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-video/android')

android/app/build.gradle

dependencies {
   ...
   compile project(':react-native-video')
}

MainApplication.java

On top, where imports are:

import com.brentvatne.react.ReactVideoPackage;

Add the ReactVideoPackage class to your list of exported packages.

@Override
protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
    return Arrays.asList(
            new MainReactPackage(),
            new ReactVideoPackage()
    );
}

Windows

Make the following additions to the given files manually:

windows/myapp.sln

Add the ReactNativeVideo project to your solution.

1. Open the solution in Visual Studio 2015
2. Right-click Solution icon in Solution Explorer > Add > Existing Project

• UWP: Select node_modules\react-native-video\windows\ReactNativeVideo\ReactNativeVideo.csproj
• WPF: Select node_modules\react-native-video\windows\ReactNativeVideo.Net46\ReactNativeVideo.Net46.csproj

windows/myapp/myapp.csproj

Add a reference to ReactNativeVideo to your main application project. From Visual Studio 2015:

1. Right-click main application project > Add > Reference...

• UWP: Check ReactNativeVideo from Solution Projects.
• WPF: Check ReactNativeVideo.Net46 from Solution Projects.

MainPage.cs

Add the ReactVideoPackage class to your list of exported packages.

using ReactNative;
using ReactNative.Modules.Core;
using ReactNative.Shell;
using ReactNativeVideo; // <-- Add this
using System.Collections.Generic;
...

        public override List<IReactPackage> Packages
        {
            get
            {
                return new List<IReactPackage>
                {
                    new MainReactPackage(),
                    new ReactVideoPackage(), // <-- Add this
                };
            }
        }

...

Usage

// Within your render function, assuming you have a file called
// "background.mp4" in your project. You can include multiple videos
// on a single screen if you like.

<Video source={{uri: "background"}}   // Can be a URL or a local file.
       ref={(ref) => {
         this.player = ref
       }}                                      // Store reference
       onBuffer={this.onBuffer}                // Callback when remote video is buffering
       onEnd={this.onEnd}                      // Callback when playback finishes
       onError={this.videoError}               // Callback when video cannot be loaded
       onFullscreenPlayerWillPresent={this.fullScreenPlayerWillPresent} // Callback before fullscreen starts
       onFullscreenPlayerDidPresent={this.fullScreenPlayerDidPresent}   // Callback after fullscreen started
       onFullscreenPlayerWillDismiss={this.fullScreenPlayerWillDismiss} // Callback before fullscreen stops
       onFullscreenPlayerDidDismiss={this.fullScreenPlayerDidDismiss}  // Callback after fullscreen stopped
       style={styles.backgroundVideo} />

// Later to trigger fullscreen
this.player.presentFullscreenPlayer()

// Disable fullscreen
this.player.dismissFullscreenPlayer()

// To set video position in seconds (seek)
this.player.seek(0)

// Later on in your styles..
var styles = StyleSheet.create({
  backgroundVideo: {
    position: 'absolute',
    top: 0,
    left: 0,
    bottom: 0,
    right: 0,
  },
});

Configurable props

• allowsExternalPlayback
• audioOnly
• ignoreSilentSwitch
• muted
• paused
• playInBackground
• playWhenInactive
• poster
• posterResizeMode
• progressUpdateInterval
• rate
• repeat
• resizeMode
• selectedTextTrack
• stereoPan
• textTracks
• useTextureView
• volume

Event props

• onAudioBecomingNoisy
• onLoad
• onLoadStart
• onProgress
• onTimedMetadata

Methods

• seek

Configurable props

allowsExternalPlayback

Indicates whether the player allows switching to external playback mode such as AirPlay or HDMI.

• true (default) - allow switching to external playback mode
• false - Don't allow switching to external playback mode

Platforms: iOS

audioOnly

Indicates whether the player should only play the audio track and instead of displaying the video track, show the poster instead.

• false (default) - Display the video as normal
• true - Show the poster and play the audio

For this to work, the poster prop must be set.

Platforms: all

ignoreSilentSwitch

Controls the iOS silent switch behavior

• "inherit" (default) - Use the default AVPlayer behavior
• "ignore" - Play audio even if the silent switch is set
• "obey" - Don't play audio if the silent switch is set

Platforms: iOS

muted

Controls whether the audio is muted

• false (default) - Don't mute audio
• true - Mute audio

Platforms: all

paused

Controls whether the media is paused

• false (default) - Don't pause the media
• true - Pause the media

Platforms: all

playInBackground

Determine whether the media should continue playing while the app is in the background. This allows customers to continue listening to the audio.

• false (default) - Don't continue playing the media
• true - Continue playing the media

To use this feature on iOS, you must:

• Enable Background Audio in your Xcode project
• Set the ignoreSilentSwitch prop to "ignore"

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer, Android MediaPlayer, iOS

playWhenInactive

Determine whether the media should continue playing when notifications or the Control Center are in front of the video.

• false (default) - Don't continue playing the media
• true - Continue playing the media

Platforms: iOS

poster

An image to display while the video is loading
Value: string with a URL for the poster, e.g. "https://baconmockup.com/300/200/"

Platforms: all

posterResizeMode

Determines how to resize the poster image when the frame doesn't match the raw video dimensions.

• "contain" (default) - Scale the image uniformly (maintain the image's aspect ratio) so that both dimensions (width and height) of the image will be equal to or less than the corresponding dimension of the view (minus padding).
• "center" - Center the image in the view along both dimensions. If the image is larger than the view, scale it down uniformly so that it is contained in the view.
• "cover" - Scale the image uniformly (maintain the image's aspect ratio) so that both dimensions (width and height) of the image will be equal to or larger than the corresponding dimension of the view (minus padding).
• "none" - Don't apply resize
• "repeat" - Repeat the image to cover the frame of the view. The image will keep its size and aspect ratio. (iOS only)
• "stretch" - Scale width and height independently, This may change the aspect ratio of the src.

Platforms: all

progressUpdateInterval

Delay in milliseconds between onProgress events in milliseconds.

Default: 250.0

Platforms: all

rate

Speed at which the media should play.

• 0.0 - Pauses the video
• 1.0 - Play at normal speed
• Other values - Slow down or speed up playback

Platforms: all

Note: For Android MediaPlayer, rate is only supported on Android 6.0 and higher devices.

repeat

Determine whether to repeat the video when the end is reached

• false (default) - Don't repeat the video
• true - Repeat the video

Platforms: all

resizeMode

Determines how to resize the video when the frame doesn't match the raw video dimensions.

• "none" (default) - Don't apply resize
• "contain" - Scale the video uniformly (maintain the video's aspect ratio) so that both dimensions (width and height) of the video will be equal to or less than the corresponding dimension of the view (minus padding).
• "cover" - Scale the video uniformly (maintain the video's aspect ratio) so that both dimensions (width and height) of the image will be equal to or larger than the corresponding dimension of the view (minus padding).
• "stretch" - Scale width and height independently, This may change the aspect ratio of the src.

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer, Android MediaPlayer, iOS, Windows UWP

selectedTextTrack

Configure which text track (caption or subtitle), if any, is shown.

selectedTextTrack={{
  type: Type,
  value: Value
}}

Example:

selectedTextTrack={{
  type: "title",
  value: "English Subtitles"
}}

Type	Value	Description
"system" (default)	N/A	Display captions only if the system preference for captions is enabled
"disabled"	N/A	Don't display a text track
"title"	string	Display the text track with the title specified as the Value, e.g. "French 1"
"language"	string	Display the text track with the language specified as the Value, e.g. "fr"
"index"	number	Display the text track with the index specified as the value, e.g. 0

Both iOS & Android (only 4.4 and higher) offer Settings to enable Captions for hearing impaired people. If "system" is selected and the Captions Setting is enabled, iOS/Android will look for a caption that matches that customer's language and display it.

If a track matching the specified Type (and Value if appropriate) is unavailable, no text track will be displayed. If multiple tracks match the criteria, the first match will be used.

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer, iOS

stereoPan

Adjust the balance of the left and right audio channels. Any value between –1.0 and 1.0 is accepted.

• -1.0 - Full left
• 0.0 (default) - Center
• 1.0 - Full right

Platforms: Android MediaPlayer

textTracks

Load one or more "sidecar" text tracks. This takes an array of objects representing each track. Each object should have the format:

Property	Description
title	Descriptive name for the track
language	2 letter ISO 639-1 code representing the language
type	Mime type of the track * TextTrackType.SRT - SubRip (.srt) * TextTrackType.TTML - TTML (.ttml) * TextTrackType.VTT - WebVTT (.vtt) iOS only supports VTT, Android ExoPlayer supports all 3
uri	URL for the text track. Currently, only tracks hosted on a webserver are supported

On iOS, sidecar text tracks are only supported for individual files, not HLS playlists. For HLS, you should include the text tracks as part of the playlist.

Example:

import { TextTrackType }, Video from 'react-native-video';

textTracks={[
  {
    title: "English CC",
    language: "en",
    type: TextTrackType.VTT, // "text/vtt"
    uri: "https://bitdash-a.akamaihd.net/content/sintel/subtitles/subtitles_en.vtt"
  },
  {
    title: "Spanish Subtitles",
    language: "es",
    type: TextTrackType.SRT, // "application/x-subrip"
    uri: "https://durian.blender.org/wp-content/content/subtitles/sintel_es.srt"
  }
]}

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer, iOS

useTextureView

Output to a TextureView instead of the default SurfaceView. In general, you will want to use SurfaceView because it is more efficient and provides better performance. However, SurfaceViews has two limitations:

• It can't be animated, transformed or scaled
• You can't overlay multiple SurfaceViews

useTextureView can only be set at same time you're setting the source.

• false (default) - Use a SurfaceView
• true - Use a TextureView

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer

volume

Adjust the volume.

• 1.0 (default) - Play at full volume
• 0.0 - Mute the audio
• Other values - Reduce volume

Platforms: all

Event props

onAudioBecomingNoisy

Callback function that is called when the audio is about to become 'noisy' due to a change in audio outputs. Typically this is called when audio output is being switched from an external source like headphones back to the internal speaker. It's a good idea to pause the media when this happens so the speaker doesn't start blasting sound.

Payload: none

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer, iOS

onLoad

Callback function that is called when the media is loaded and ready to play.

Payload:

Property	Type	Description
currentPosition	number	Time in seconds where the media will start
duration	number	Length of the media in seconds
naturalSize	object	Properties: * width - Width in pixels that the video was encoded at * height - Height in pixels that the video was encoded at * orientation - "portrait" or "landscape"
textTracks	array	An array of text track info objects with the following properties: * index - Index number * title - Description of the track * language - 2 letter ISO 639-1 language code * type - Mime type of track

Example:

{ 
  canPlaySlowForward: true,
  canPlayReverse: false,
  canPlaySlowReverse: false,
  canPlayFastForward: false,
  canStepForward: false,
  canStepBackward: false,
  currentTime: 0,
  duration: 5910.208984375,
  naturalSize: {
     height: 1080
     orientation: 'landscape'
     width: '1920'
  },
  textTracks: [
    { title: '#1 French', language: 'fr', index: 0, type: 'text/vtt' },
    { title: '#2 English CC', language: 'en', index: 1, type: 'text/vtt' },
    { title: '#3 English Director Commentary', language: 'en', index: 2, type: 'text/vtt' }
  ]
}

Platforms: all

onLoadStart

Callback function that is called when the media starts loading.

Payload:

Property	Description
isNetwork	boolean
type	string
uri	string

Example:

{
  isNetwork: true,
  type: '',
  uri: 'https://bitdash-a.akamaihd.net/content/sintel/hls/playlist.m3u8'
}

Platforms: all

onProgress

Callback function that is called every progressInterval seconds with info about which position the media is currently playing.

Property	Description
currentTime	number
playableDuration	number
seekableDuration	number

Example:

{
  currentTime: 5.2,
  playableDuration: 34.6,
  seekableDuration: 888
}

onTimedMetadata

Callback function that is called when timed metadata becomes available

Payload:

Property	Type	Description
metadata	array	Array of metadata objects

Example:

{
  metadata: [
    { value: 'Streaming Encoder', identifier: 'TRSN' },
    { value: 'Internet Stream', identifier: 'TRSO' },
    { value: 'Any Time You Like', identifier: 'TIT2' }
  ]
}

Platforms: Android ExoPlayer, iOS

Methods

Methods operate on a ref to the Video element. You can create a ref using code like:

return (
  <Video source={...}
    ref => (this.player = ref) />
);

seek()

seek(seconds)

Seek to the specified position represented by seconds. seconds is a float value.

seek() can only be called after the onLoad event has fired.

Example:

this.player.seek(200); // Seek to 3 minutes, 20 seconds

Platforms: all

Exact seek

By default iOS seeks within 100 milliseconds of the target position. If you need more accuracy, you can use the seek with tolerance method:

seek(seconds, tolerance)

tolerance is the max distance in milliseconds from the seconds position that's allowed. Using a more exact tolerance can cause seeks to take longer. If you want to seek exactly, set tolerance to 0.

Example:

this.player.seek(120, 50); // Seek to 2 minutes with +/- 50 milliseconds accuracy

Platforms: iOS

Additional props

To see the full list of available props, you can check the propTypes of the Video.js component.

• By default, iOS 9+ will only load encrypted HTTPS urls. If you need to load content from a webserver that only supports HTTP, you will need to modify your Info.plist file and add the following entry:

For more detailed info check this article

Android Expansion File Usage

Expansions files allow you to ship assets that exceed the 100MB apk size limit and don't need to be updated each time you push an app update.

This only supports mp4 files and they must not be compressed. Example command line for preventing compression:

zip -r -n .mp4 *.mp4 player.video.example.com

// Within your render function, assuming you have a file called
// "background.mp4" in your expansion file. Just add your main and (if applicable) patch version
<Video source={{uri: "background", mainVer: 1, patchVer: 0}} // Looks for .mp4 file (background.mp4) in the given expansion version.
       resizeMode="cover"           // Fill the whole screen at aspect ratio.
       style={styles.backgroundVideo} />

### Load files with the RN Asset System

The asset system [introduced in RN `0.14`](http://www.reactnative.com/react-native-v0-14-0-released/) allows loading image resources shared across iOS and Android without touching native code. As of RN `0.31` [the same is true](https://github.com/facebook/react-native/commit/91ff6868a554c4930fd5fda6ba8044dbd56c8374) of mp4 video assets for Android. As of [RN `0.33`](https://github.com/facebook/react-native/releases/tag/v0.33.0) iOS is also supported. Requires `react-native-video@0.9.0`.

<Video source={require('../assets/video/turntable.mp4')} />

### Play in background on iOS

To enable audio to play in background on iOS the audio session needs to be set to `AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback`. See [Apple documentation][3] for additional details. (NOTE: there is now a ticket to [expose this as a prop]( https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-video/issues/310) )

## Examples

- See an [Example integration][1] in `react-native-login` *note that this example uses an older version of this library, before we used `export default` -- if you use `require` you will need to do `require('react-native-video').default` as per instructions above.*
- Try the included [VideoPlayer example][2] yourself:

   ```sh
   git clone [e-mail]:react-native-community/react-native-video.git
   cd react-native-video/example
   npm install
   open ios/VideoPlayer.xcodeproj

Then Cmd+R to start the React Packager, build and run the project in the simulator.

• Lumpen Radio contains another example integration using local files and full screen background video.

Updating

Version 3.0

All platforms now auto-play

Previously, on Android ExoPlayer if the paused prop was not set, the media would not automatically start playing. The only way it would work was if you set paused={false}. This has been changed to automatically play if paused is not set so that the behavior is consistent across platforms.

All platforms now keep their paused state when returning from the background

Previously, on Android MediaPlayer if you setup an AppState event when the app went into the background and set a paused prop so that when you returned to the app the video would be paused it would be ignored.

Note, Windows does not have a concept of an app going into the background, so this doesn't apply there.

Use Android SDK 27 by default

Version 3.0 updates the Android build tools and SDK to version 27. React Native is in the process of switchting over to SDK 27 in preparation for Google's requirement that new Android apps use SDK 26 by August 2018.

You will either need to install the version 27 SDK and version 27.0.3 buildtools or modify your build.gradle file to configure react-native-video to use the same build settings as the rest of your app as described below.

Using app build settings

You will need to create a project.ext section in the top-level build.gradle file (not app/build.gradle). Fill in the values from the example below using the values found in your app/build.gradle file.

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    ... // Various other settings go here
}

allprojects {
    ... // Various other settings go here

    project.ext {
        compileSdkVersion = 23
        buildToolsVersion = "23.0.1"

        minSdkVersion = 16
        targetSdkVersion = 22
    }
}

If you encounter an error Could not find com.android.support:support-annotations:27.0.0. reinstall your Android Support Repository.

TODOS

• Add support for playing multiple videos in a sequence (will interfere with current repeat implementation)
• Callback to get buffering progress for remote videos
• Bring API closer to HTML5 <Video> reference

---

MIT Licensed

Changelog

Version 3.1.0

• Support sidecar text tracks on iOS #1109
• Support onAudioBecomingNoisy on iOS #1131

Version 3.0

• Inherit Android buildtools and SDK version from the root project #1081
• Automatically play on ExoPlayer when the paused prop is not set #1083
• Preserve Android MediaPlayer paused prop when backgrounding #1082
• Support specifying headers on ExoPlayer as part of the source #805
• Prevent iOS onLoad event during seeking #1088
• ExoPlayer playableDuration incorrect #1089