iPhone video limits and tips

iOS is a closed and controlled system focusing on security, simplicity and ease of use. iPhone offers fewer customization and personalization options than Android and restricts users to the default look and feel of the platform.

Most of you certainly noticed that a video player in full-screen mode is not the same as one presented in an inline position. This is an iPhone platform player, and there is no option to change the look and feel of it. However, in some iOS versions you can find the Fullscreen API option in iPhone's Settings->Applications->Safari->Advanced->Feature Flags. If turned on, you should see the custom player in full-screen mode instead of the native iOS video player.

As of iOS version 17.1, iPhone supports Managed Media Source, an equivalent of Media Source Extensions (MSE) available in major desktop browsers and on Android devices. Also, video.js has an experimental VHS option to support Managed Media Source (requires the other VHS option, overrideNative, to be enabled too). However, we did not succeed with such streaming on iPhone. A disadvantage of iPhone native streaming is that you cannot switch between possible HLS qualities. This is not a big thing, as iPhone automatically chooses the best possible quality for the viewer; changing quality would not bring a big difference for the viewer. The iPhone device is too small to see details.

For demanding users, there is an option to load and use the hlsjs plugin. The hls.js engine does support iOS Managed Media Source. It detects and displays HLS qualities and enables the user to switch between qualities.