We are using LinkedIn to share a link to an HTML5 interactive video. When the link is shared, by default it opens in LinkedIn's browser inside the app. The problem is that when the user starts playing the video, the browser automatically switches to fullscreen, hiding our custom controls. iOS allows inline video playback nowadays with playsinline attribute on the video element, but LinkedIn browser doesn't support the attribute. On iPad the video does play inline though and does not switch to fullscreen. We have tested this bug on iOS versions 10 and 11. On native Safari browser or Google Chrome there's no problem, the video plays inline as intended. The video plays inline in other apps, for example Facebook Messenger's in-app browser. The only problem we have had is with the LinkedIn browser.
Is there any way to play a video inline on iPhone when using the in-app browser without going fullscreen? Or, is there any url scheme that could be used to launch Safari from the in-app browser? Currently the user experience is quite bad when the users have to manually exit fullscreen, which also pauses the video.
Try adding the target=”_blank” attribute. It will open the link provided in a new page, meaning it can open the video in a new page in the web browser.
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My research tells me that there is now way to escape fullscreen video viewing in iOS browsers on iPhone or iTouch. It also seems there there is no way to modify the native controls that are displayed along with the video. Is the user in a total blackbox while viewing video in this case?
I'm trying to find someway for a user to indicate that they like a video as it is playing. Is there anything I can do that isn't a hack? If not is there any indication from Apple that they will ever be willing to change this? I'd rather not make an app out of this project.
You actually can play a video in line on an iOS browser, if this is what you are aiming for although there are restrictions - updated answer:
Play video inline in a browser on iOS
Safari on large screen iOS (iPad) should support inline video (I don't have iPAD hand to verify this still works...).
Safari on 'small screen' iOS (i.e. iPhone) will not support inline video as standard. There is at least one workaround which will allow it but this does bypass much of the native video playback performance gains so it may not meet your needs. It is a work in progress still as you will see from the link, but try the demo on an iPhone browser - you need to hit the small play button beside the video, rather than the one on top of the video at the time of writing:
https://github.com/newshorts/InlineVideo
Playing inline in a UIWebView on iOS
Take a look at this Apple Developer page:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIWebView_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006950-CH3-SW31
In particular:
allowsInlineMediaPlayback
A Boolean value that determines whether HTML5 videos play inline or use the native full-screen controller.
and:
Discussion
The default value on iPhone is NO.
In order for video to play inline, not only does this property need to be set on the view, but the video element in the HTML document must also include the webkit-playsinline attribute.
I'm trying to find a way of knowing when a Youtube video on an iPhone enters/exists fullscreen inside an HTML page. I am using Safari Mobile, not a UIWebView, the videos automatically go fullscreen as soon as they start playing.
Being obviously not on the youtube.com domain I cannot bind the webkitbeginfullscreen and webkitbendfullscreen on the <video> element within the iframe.
Is there any technique, even hacks, allowing me to query the video fullscreen state?
I think you'd have to detect iPhone or iPod user agent and then if the time changed on the video (via YouTube Javascript API) then you would have to assume it was playing.
Although, that only gets you equivalent beginfullscreen event reliably.
When I go to m.youtube.com on my iPhone (Chrome) to watch videos, I assume that YouTube is using the HTML5 <video> tag to display them.
However, when I watch a video with a commercial, dragging the seek button makes it jump back to it's original position before the seek. In other words, it is impossible to control your position in the commercial.
It feels like a violation of the divide between browser content and the browser. This isn't a native app, it is a website. How are the iOS video control elements being manipulated by HTML? It seems that this should be impossible, just like it should be impossible for a webpage to access a phone's photos or switch applications.
If it's running inline in the browser, the site will have full script access to the controls - and it's very standard nowadays to prevent skipping/changing the playhead during ads. Some even get rid of the controls completely.
Though HTML5 video is a native browser function, it's still subject to javascript hooks. All one has to do is add return false to the onChangePlayhead event to lock the controls down. It's only when you remove the video from inline web and bring it into the native iOS app that it becomes untouchable by scripts.
I have a web app that is using Youtube videos embedded via iframes into a modal dialog window. In Safari on the iPad 3, iOS 5.1, the video plays properly the first time it's loaded. However, if the modal is hidden and then re-opened, the video will no longer be able to play. The player will display, but it's simply a black space with no controls. The YouTube watermark still appears, and can be clicked on.
The play button in the Safari control panel will play the audio of the video from where it left off, but the player still won't display any video.
The "related video" suggestion images will appear once the audio reaches the end, and then the video can be replayed normally.
Does anyone know what's causing this behaviour? The embedding works as intended in all major desktop browsers, and is fine the first time in iOS. It's only when it's reopened in iOS Safari that it fails.
I'm trying to link to videos on vimeo within my PhoneGap application and I would like them to play inside the app (Fullscreen and when done button is pressed go back to app). Does anyone know how to pull off this kind of functionality. I've looked at vimeo's API's but they seem to just pull the video links in and then link out to the video. Any thoughts?
The Iframe tag that comes by default in the share option will work in phone gap.
Note:You need a pro account to use some thing other then the iframe