NEW: My new book Pro SwiftUI is out now – level up your SwiftUI skills today! >>

How to play movies with VideoPlayer

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

Updated for Xcode 14.2

SwiftUI’s VideoPlayer view lets us playback movies from any URL, local or remote. It comes from the AVKit framework, so you should make sure and add import AVKit before trying it out.

As an example, if you had video.mp4 in your app bundle and wanted to play it back, you’d use this:

VideoPlayer(player: AVPlayer(url:  Bundle.main.url(forResource: "video", withExtension: "mp4")!))
    .frame(height: 400)

Download this as an Xcode project

A video showing Niagara Falls, playing inside an iPhone.

Reminder: You need to add import AVKit to your Swift file to use this.

And if you want to play a remote video, use its remote URL instead:

VideoPlayer(player: AVPlayer(url:  URL(string: "https://bit.ly/swswift")!))
    .frame(height: 400)

Download this as an Xcode project

A video with a play button overlaid, inside an iPhone.

If you want, you can provide a second parameter to the VideoPlayer initializer that adds content to be drawn over the video. This will be drawn below the system video controls, but can respond to any events that aren’t caught by those controls.

For example, this places the text “Watermark” at the very top of the video area:

VideoPlayer(player: AVPlayer(url:  URL(string: "https://bit.ly/swswift")!)) {
    VStack {
        Text("Watermark")
            .foregroundColor(.black)
            .background(.white.opacity(0.7))
        Spacer()
    }
    .frame(width: 400, height: 300)
}

Download this as an Xcode project

A video with a play button overlaid, along with the word Watermark place at the top.

Hacking with Swift is sponsored by Essential Developer

SPONSORED From March 20th to 26th, you can join a FREE crash course for mid/senior iOS devs who want to achieve an expert level of technical and practical skills – it’s the fast track to being a complete senior developer!

Click to save your free spot now

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

Similar solutions…

BUY OUR BOOKS
Buy Pro Swift Buy Pro SwiftUI Buy Swift Design Patterns Buy Testing Swift Buy Hacking with iOS Buy Swift Coding Challenges Buy Swift on Sundays Volume One Buy Server-Side Swift Buy Advanced iOS Volume One Buy Advanced iOS Volume Two Buy Advanced iOS Volume Three Buy Hacking with watchOS Buy Hacking with tvOS Buy Hacking with macOS Buy Dive Into SpriteKit Buy Swift in Sixty Seconds Buy Objective-C for Swift Developers Buy Beyond Code

Was this page useful? Let us know!

Average rating: 4.4/5

 
Unknown user

You are not logged in

Log in or create account
 

Link copied to your pasteboard.