React Native Video Library to Play Video in Android and IOS

React Native Play Video

This is an example of React Native Video to Play Any Video in Android and IOS. There are many libraries available to play any video in React Native but React Native Video is very good and widely accepted by react-native-community members so I personally like to use it.

React Native Video provides all the props which you need while playing a video and we can control them easily. React Native Video does not provide the inbuilt controls to play /Pause or Seek the video as they have provided the props for the full access. If you are interested to design your own controls then your welcome else you can use a supporting library called react-native-media-controls. It provides you all the functional controls which you need for a standard video player.

Loading Overlay

Play / Pause

Seek

FullScreen

To Play a Video in React Native

To play a video in React Native we are going to use Video and MediaControls components from react-native-video and react-native-media-controls libraries.

Video component

<Video
    onEnd={this.onEnd}
    onLoad={this.onLoad}
    onLoadStart={this.onLoadStart}
    onProgress={this.onProgress}
    paused={this.state.paused}
    ref={videoPlayer => (this.videoPlayer = videoPlayer)}
    resizeMode={this.state.screenType}
    onFullScreen={this.state.isFullScreen}
    source={{
      uri: 'https://assets.mixkit.co/videos/download/mixkit-countryside-meadow-4075.mp4'
    }}
    style={styles.mediaPlayer}
    volume={10}
/>

MediaControls Component

<MediaControls
    duration={this.state.duration}
    isLoading={this.state.isLoading}
    mainColor="#333"
    onFullScreen={this.onFullScreen}
    onPaused={this.onPaused}
    onReplay={this.onReplay}
    onSeek={this.onSeek}
    onSeeking={this.onSeeking}
    playerState={this.state.playerState}
    progress={this.state.currentTime}
    toolbar={this.renderToolbar()}
/>

For this example, We are going to play a simple video with MediaControls. So let’s get started.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependencies

To use Video and MediaControls we need to install react-native-video and react-native-media-controls dependencies.

To install this open the terminal and jump into your project using

cd ProjectName

Run the following command to install

npm install --save react-native-video

npm install --save react-native-media-controls

npm install --save react-native-slider

This command will copy all the dependencies into your node_module directory.

CocoaPods Installation

Please use the following command to install CocoaPods

npx pod-install

Code

Now Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

// React Native Video Library to Play Video in Android and IOS
// https://aboutreact.com/react-native-video/

// import React in our code
import React, {useState, useRef} from 'react';

// import all the components we are going to use
import {SafeAreaView, StyleSheet, Text, View} from 'react-native';

//Import React Native Video to play video
import Video from 'react-native-video';

//Media Controls to control Play/Pause/Seek and full screen
import
  MediaControls, {PLAYER_STATES}
from 'react-native-media-controls';

const App = () => {
  const videoPlayer = useRef(null);
  const [currentTime, setCurrentTime] = useState(0);
  const [duration, setDuration] = useState(0);
  const [isFullScreen, setIsFullScreen] = useState(false);
  const [isLoading, setIsLoading] = useState(true);
  const [paused, setPaused] = useState(false);
  const [
    playerState, setPlayerState
  ] = useState(PLAYER_STATES.PLAYING);
  const [screenType, setScreenType] = useState('content');

  const onSeek = (seek) => {
    //Handler for change in seekbar
    videoPlayer.current.seek(seek);
  };

  const onPaused = (playerState) => {
    //Handler for Video Pause
    setPaused(!paused);
    setPlayerState(playerState);
  };

  const onReplay = () => {
    //Handler for Replay
    setPlayerState(PLAYER_STATES.PLAYING);
    videoPlayer.current.seek(0);
  };

  const onProgress = (data) => {
    // Video Player will progress continue even if it ends
    if (!isLoading && playerState !== PLAYER_STATES.ENDED) {
      setCurrentTime(data.currentTime);
    }
  };

  const onLoad = (data) => {
    setDuration(data.duration);
    setIsLoading(false);
  };

  const onLoadStart = (data) => setIsLoading(true);

  const onEnd = () => setPlayerState(PLAYER_STATES.ENDED);

  const onError = () => alert('Oh! ', error);

  const exitFullScreen = () => {
    alert('Exit full screen');
  };

  const enterFullScreen = () => {};

  const onFullScreen = () => {
    setIsFullScreen(isFullScreen);
    if (screenType == 'content') setScreenType('cover');
    else setScreenType('content');
  };

  const renderToolbar = () => (
    <View>
      <Text style={styles.toolbar}> toolbar </Text>
    </View>
  );

  const onSeeking = (currentTime) => setCurrentTime(currentTime);

  return (
    <View style={{flex: 1}}>
      <Video
        onEnd={onEnd}
        onLoad={onLoad}
        onLoadStart={onLoadStart}
        onProgress={onProgress}
        paused={paused}
        ref={videoPlayer}
        resizeMode={screenType}
        onFullScreen={isFullScreen}
        source={{
          uri:
            'https://assets.mixkit.co/videos/download/mixkit-countryside-meadow-4075.mp4',
        }}
        style={styles.mediaPlayer}
        volume={10}
      />
      <MediaControls
        duration={duration}
        isLoading={isLoading}
        mainColor="#333"
        onFullScreen={onFullScreen}
        onPaused={onPaused}
        onReplay={onReplay}
        onSeek={onSeek}
        onSeeking={onSeeking}
        playerState={playerState}
        progress={currentTime}
        toolbar={renderToolbar()}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

export default App;

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
  },
  toolbar: {
    marginTop: 30,
    backgroundColor: 'white',
    padding: 10,
    borderRadius: 5,
  },
  mediaPlayer: {
    position: 'absolute',
    top: 0,
    left: 0,
    bottom: 0,
    right: 0,
    backgroundColor: 'black',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

IOS

Android

This is how you can Play Video in Android and IOS devices using React Native Video Library. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂