Damus Video Player (f/k/a Bug: Media Control disappeared in iOS18)

[tkhumush]

What happens
Video playback on iOS18 no longer shows any media control.

What I expect to happen
I expect to see a play, pause, 15 +/-, seek bar, and airplay.

Link to noteID, npub
N/A

Screenshots/video recording

** Versions **
Damus version: 1.10 (8)
Operating system version: iOS18 Release Candidate.
Device: e.g. iPhone 14 Pro mac

Steps To Reproduce
Click in any video on iOS18.

Additional context

iOS18 is being release very soon.

---

Remaining issues

1.11(4) experimental build

• Portrait videos on timeline do not seem to be full width. Example: note1x9jgp6wtfhn4hl9s5sft9m9t78cpgtve2ckkdr83yrffswdrmwnsf7k8zc
• Can't get rid of playback controls on full screen (highPriorityGesture on the view absorbs the tap)
• Need to test livestream
• grantgilliam post from 13 hours ago, with media previews off in my settings, I cannot play the video on main feed with sound on. By trying to tap sound on, I am taken to note view. (npub1saxmd5km0vusxhl84tqeaqaysftezh3h6ne22h95efntutth42yqlju5fv)

[alltheseas]

Whats the noteID?

[tkhumush]

Here is a note.

note1qqqrwcpeckskkwgrjcwxrra9s4ax7m0mvzy3x83sptdq62k7022qr9vdvv

Though this is not note specific.

[jb55]

I've noticed this as well, can't fullscreen

[alltheseas]

I've noticed this as well, can't fullscreen

One more data point: noticed same behavior on nostur as well (I am assuming nostur had full screen prior), as I've locked myself out of damus

cc @fabianfabian

[danieldaquino]

This is still an issue on the official (non-beta) iOS 18.0 release

Device: iPhone 13 mini (physical device)
iOS: 18.0
Damus: Current tip of 1.10 dfa72fceb10dc0cd6867870acfc1f2b69c890722

[danieldaquino]

Ok, I haven't found a fix for this yet, but I did a lot of testing and digging and got much closer to the root cause, and there are some different ways we can fix this.

The thing is that, historically, TabView with .tabViewStyle(.page) causes video controls to become hidden. This is yet another SwiftUI quirk — which we have been living with for years.

The thing is, there used to be a hack around this, which is described here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/74401288
We use this hack, and it was working for a long time. But now this hack sadly no longer works on iOS 18.

Here is a minimally reproducible code to demonstrate this:

import SwiftUI
import AVFoundation
import AVKit

struct VideoView: View {
    @State var player = AVPlayer(url: URL(string: "https://www.w3schools.com/html/mov_bbb.mp4")!)
    @State var player2 = AVPlayer(url: URL(string: "https://www.w3schools.com/html/mov_bbb.mp4")!)
    
    var body: some View {
        TabView {
            DamusAVPlayerView(
                player: player,
                controller: AVPlayerViewController.init(),
                show_playback_controls: true
            )
            VideoPlayer(player: player2)
                .frame(width: 320, height: 180, alignment: .center)
                .clipped()
            Text("hi")
        }.tabViewStyle(.page)
    }
}

struct VideoViewWithNonPageTabBar: View {
    @State var player = AVPlayer(url: URL(string: "https://www.w3schools.com/html/mov_bbb.mp4")!)
    @State var player2 = AVPlayer(url: URL(string: "https://www.w3schools.com/html/mov_bbb.mp4")!)
    
    var body: some View {
        TabView {
            DamusAVPlayerView(
                player: player,
                controller: AVPlayerViewController.init(),
                show_playback_controls: true
            )
            .clipped() // The SwiftUI hack that no longer works
            VideoPlayer(player: player2)
                .frame(width: 320, height: 180, alignment: .center)
                .clipped()
            Text("test page")
        }
    }
}

struct DamusAVPlayerView: UIViewControllerRepresentable {
    
    let player: AVPlayer
    var controller: AVPlayerViewController
    let show_playback_controls: Bool
    
    func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> AVPlayerViewController {
        
        return self.controller
    }
    
    func updateUIViewController(_ uiViewController: AVPlayerViewController, context: Context) {
        if uiViewController.player == nil {
            uiViewController.player = player
            player.play()
        }
        self.controller.showsPlaybackControls = show_playback_controls
    }
    
    static func dismantleUIViewController(_ uiViewController: AVPlayerViewController, coordinator: ()) {
        uiViewController.player?.pause()
        uiViewController.player = nil
    }
}

#Preview {
    VStack {
        VideoView()
        VideoViewWithNonPageTabBar()
    }
}

Possible solutions:

1. Build custom video controls
2. Use something else other than a page tab bar on the full screen carousel view (Maybe an equivalent implementation of it)
   • I am thinking of making it so that I apply some arrow buttons and page indicator at the top. There would be no swipe though.
   • Or maybe a scroll view?
3. Keep looking for another hack

@jb55, @alltheseas, two questions:

• Which solution seems the most reasonable to you?
• Should this be a blocker for the 1.10 release?

[danieldaquino]

• Should this be a blocker for the 1.10 release?

@jb55, @alltheseas, in this decision it is worth bearing in mind that this issue is also present on the current app store release (1.9.1) on iOS 18, so releasing 1.10 without this fix does not make the app store version "worse".