Can you autoplay HTML5 videos on the iPad?

ghz 1years ago ⋅ 733 views

Question

The <video> tags autoplay="autoplay" attribute works fine in Safari.

When testing on an iPad, the video must be activated manually.

I thought it was a loading issue, so I ran a loop checking for the status of the media:

videoPlay: function(){
    var me = this;
    console.log('STATE: ' + $("#periscopevideo").get(0).readyState);
    if ($("#periscopevideo").get(0).readyState != 4){
      setTimeout(function(){me.videoPlay();}, 300);
    }
    else {
      $("#periscopevideo").get(0).play();
    }
}

The state remains at 0 on the iPad. On my desktop safari, it goes through 0, 1 and finally 4. On the iPad, it only reaches 4 if I manually tap the "play" arrow.

Moreover, calling $("#periscopevideo").get(0).play() from an click via onClick works too.

Is there any restrictions by Apple in regard to autoplay? (I'm running iOS 5+ by the way).

Answer

iOS 10 update

The ban on autoplay has been lifted as of iOS 10 - but with some restrictions (e.g. A can be autoplayed if there is no audio track).

To see a full list of these restrictions, see the official docs: https://webkit.org/blog/6784/new-video-policies-for-ios/

iOS 9 and before

As of iOS 6.1, it is no longer possible to auto-play videos on the iPad.

My assumption as to why they've disabled the auto-play feature?

Well, as many device owners have data usage/bandwidth limits on their devices, I think Apple felt that the user themselves should decide when they initiate bandwidth usage.

After a bit of research I found the following extract in the Apple documentation in regard to auto-play on iOS devices to confirm my assumption:

"Apple has made the decision to disable the automatic playing of video on iOS devices, through both script and attribute implementations.

In Safari, on iOS (for all devices, including iPad), where the user may be on a cellular network and be charged per data unit, preload and auto-play are disabled. No data is loaded until the user initiates it. " - [Apple documentation.](http://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/AudioVideo/Conceptual/Using_HTML5_Audio_Video/Device- SpecificConsiderations/Device-SpecificConsiderations.html)

Here is a separate warning featured on the Safari HTML5 Reference page about why embedded media cannot be played in Safari on iOS:

Warning : To prevent unsolicited downloads over cellular networks at the user’s expense, embedded media cannot be played automatically in Safari on iOS—the user always initiates playback. A controller is automatically supplied on iPhone or iPod touch once playback in initiated, but for iPad you must either set the controls attribute or provide a controller using JavaScript.

What this means (in terms of code) is that Javascript's play() and load() methods are inactive until the user initiates playback, unless the play() or load() method is triggered by user action (e.g. a click event).

Basically, a user-initiated play button works, but an onLoad="play()" event does not.

For example, this would play the movie:

<input type="button" value="Play" onclick="document.myMovie.play()">

Whereas the following would do nothing on iOS:

<body onload="document.myMovie.play()">
#ios