Video content is no longer limited to entertainment apps. It is now a key feature in educational platforms, social media, and even productivity tools. This is supported by statistical data, indicating that over 50% of global internet users engage with these types of videos weekly, with 25.5% focused on educational content and 25% on tutorials and instructional videos.
While integrating a video player used to require significant effort, modern frameworks and tools have simplified the process, making video more accessible and enhancing user engagement. With this ease of implementation, developers must consider how video can improve their product experience rather than just being an add-on.
Speaker
Andrei Trefilov, Senior Engineer at BandLab Technologies, a Singapore-based company that designs and develops intonation services.
Categories of Video Consumption in Mobile Apps
Different types of videos serve different user needs:
- On-demand long videos – Used in services like YouTube, educational platforms, and online cinemas. These videos often require high-quality streaming and buffering mechanisms to ensure smooth playback.
- Short clips – Popular on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Stories. Short clips demand instant playback with minimal buffering, making preloading techniques crucial.
- Live streaming – Found on platforms like YouTube Live, Twitch, and sports broadcasting services. Live video requires low-latency streaming and adaptive bitrate adjustments.
- Short inserts – Includes advertisements, onboarding videos, and UI animations. These videos need to be seamlessly integrated without interrupting the user experience.
Each category has unique playback requirements. For instance, buffering delays are tolerable when watching a long movie but significantly impact the experience of short-form content like TikTok videos.
Understanding Video Formats and Delivery
To ensure smooth playback and efficient delivery of video content in mobile applications, developers must choose the appropriate video format. The choice of format impacts streaming quality, buffering time, and overall user experience. There are two primary video formats commonly used in mobile apps, each serving different purposes:
- MP4 – A widely used format that stores video as a complete file. While MP4 videos can be preloaded, playback starts only after the entire file is downloaded, making it less ideal for streaming.
- HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) – A more flexible format that divides videos into smaller chunks and streams them progressively. It enables Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR), adjusting video quality dynamically based on the user’s internet speed.
For short video feeds, MP4 might be preferable as it avoids the cost of video transcoding required for HLS. However, for streaming, HLS provides a better user experience. Additionally, FairPlay DRM on iOS can be used to encrypt and protect content from piracy.
Key Components of a Video Player in iOS
Apple provides two main frameworks to make video playback and processing easier in iOS apps. Developers can choose between a simple video player that works with minimal setup or a more advanced option that offers greater control over how videos play and are processed:
- AVKit – A high-level framework that simplifies video playback with built-in UI components.
- AVFoundation – A lower-level framework that offers extensive control over video processing and playback.
Some of the key components that make video playback in iOS efficient and customizable include the following:
- AVPlayer – The core class responsible for video playback, providing essential controls like play, pause, and seek.
- AVPlayerViewController – A ready-to-use video player with built-in playback controls and AirPlay support.
- AVPlayerLayer – A specialized layer for rendering video in custom UI designs.
- AVAudioSession – Manages audio configurations to ensure smooth audio transitions.
- Picture-in-Picture (PiP) – Allows users to continue watching videos while using other apps.
- AirPlay Support – Enables streaming content to larger screens with minimal effort.
- AVAssetDownloadTask – Handles background video downloads for offline viewing.
Optimizing Video Feeds for a Seamless User Experience
One of the biggest challenges in applications that rely heavily on video content is ensuring smooth playback transitions. If videos take too long to load or buffer frequently, it can lead to a frustrating user experience. A common issue in basic implementations is that buffering only starts when the user scrolls to a video. This often results in noticeable delays before playback begins, negatively affecting engagement and user retention.
To minimize buffering time and improve playback performance, a player pool approach can be used. This involves preloading and efficiently managing video players in memory to ensure a seamless experience. The key steps in implementing a player pool include:
- Preload videos before they appear on the screen to reduce buffering time.
- Buffer content in advance to ensure instant playback when the user scrolls.
- Release unused video players to manage memory efficiently and prevent performance issues.
Additionally, displaying the first frame of a video before it starts playing can reduce perceived load times. This technique is widely used in platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok, ensuring a seamless viewing experience.
Collecting and Using Video Playback Analytics
To maintain a high-quality user experience, developers should track key playback metrics. These insights help identify bottlenecks and optimize video performance:
- Start – Indicates when playback begins.
- Resume/Pause – Tracks user interactions with the video.
- Seek – Logs when users skip forward or backward.
- Finish – Records whether the video was watched in full.
- Heartbeat – Captures periodic checkpoints of user engagement.
- Stalled – Detects interruptions in playback due to buffering.
Encapsulating AVPlayer logic within a custom class can streamline event tracking and ensure accurate engagement analytics. This data helps developers refine playback behavior and improve the overall video experience.
Conclusion
Video content in mobile applications requires a well-thought-out approach to format, playback, and analytics to ensure a seamless user experience. Optimizing video streaming through preloading, adaptive bitrate, and efficient memory management is especially crucial for short videos and live streaming. Using the right tools (AVKit, AVFoundation) and formats (MP4 for short videos, HLS for streaming) helps minimize delays. Collecting analytics on user interactions with video improves performance and engagement, making video a key tool for enhancing the quality of mobile applications.