How do I detect if the HTML5 autoplay attribute is supported?

Question

How do I best detect whether a browser\'s HTML5 video element supports autoplay?

On current iOS Safari, for example, autoplay is disabled.

Update:

Answer 1

Modernizr autoplay test has some reliability issues, as pointed here: https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/issues/1095

You can detect video autoplay support by checking if the paused status of a video element changes after it programmatically plays. This alone can return false negatives in some mobile browsers, so a Promise check should be added in order to cover these.

This method works in all major browsers (desktop and mobile), except for Android <= 4.0 and Windows Phone, where it returns a false negative.

Here is the detect function:

var supports_video_autoplay = function(callback) {

  if (typeof callback !== "function") return false;

  var v = document.createElement("video");
  v.paused = true;
  var p = "play" in v && v.play();

  callback(!v.paused || ("Promise" in window && p instanceof Promise));

};

Usage:

supports_video_autoplay(function(supported) {
  if (supported) {
    // video autoplay supported!
  } else {
    // no video autoplay support :(
  }
});

Live test: https://codepen.io/paulorely/pen/QveEGy

Answer 2

Maybe I respond a little bit late but I just test a solution which work fine for me :

var loadStarted = false;

video.onloadstart = function(){
    loadStarted = true;
};

function checkRunning(){
    if(!loadStarted) removeVideo();
}

setTimeout(checkRunning, 1000);

The setTimeout is not very clean, but the overall solution is super simple like that !

Answer 3

The reason why the script above and the Modernizr-detection isn't reliable might be that they are not passing all the restrictions that Apple made:

• The video must be muted
• The video must be set to play inline
• The video must have a size (0x0 px will fail)
• The video must be visible in the viewport (no opacity-effects, display: none or visible: hidden)

I came up with tiny jQuery plugin to detect autoplay. See if it is more reliable:

(function ($) {
   $.extend({
      'canVideoautoplay' : function ( callback ) {

         var testStarted = false;
         try {

            var playsinline = navigator.userAgent.match(/(iPhone|iPod)/g) ? ('playsInline' in document.createElement('video')) : true;
            if (!playsinline) {
               return callback(false);
            }

            var src = 'data:video/mp4;base64,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';
            var $video = $('<video src="'+src+'" controls playsinline muted width="20" height="20" style="position:fixed;z-index:1000;top:0;left:0"></video>');
            $('body').prepend($video);

            testStarted = true;
            $video[0].play();

            $video[0].onplay = function() {
               this.playing = true;
            };

            $video[0].oncanplay = function() {
               if ($video[0].playing) {
                  callback(true);
               } else {
                  callback(false);
               }
               $video[0].pause();
               $video.remove();
            };
         } catch(e) {}

         if (!testStarted) {
            callback(false);
         }
      }
   });
})(jQuery);

You can use it like this:

$(function () {
   $.canVideoautoplay(function ( canAutoplay ) {
      alert('Can we autoplay? ' + canAutoplay);
   });
});