How do videos autoplay on iOS at youtube.com

Question

When I set autoplay to true for a YouTube video (IFrame API) on my site, it doesn\'t work. All the documentation says apple disables autoplay on ios for bandwidth reasons. <

Answer 1

It seems that Youtube's team uses the interaction of the user when taps/clicks a video button to authorize the reproduction.

Remember that youtube.com is a SPA (Single Page Application) so there is no page reload or redirection.

So, youtube.com doesn't have autoplay enabled.

Answer 2

I stumbled into similar but more complicated issue/requirement.

I need to show YouTube video on a modal popup. Popup is shown on a click. Have taken YouTube API code (From https://developers.google.com/youtube/iframe_api_reference) and modified a bit to work with Bootstrap popup.

Below is my code

    <div class="modal" id="videoModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog">
    <div class="modal-dialog" role="document">
        <div class="modal-content">
            <div class="modal-header">
                <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close">
                    <span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
                </button>
            </div>
            <div class="modal-body">
                <div class="videoWrapper">
                    <!-- 1. The <iframe> (and video player) will replace this <div> tag. -->
                    <div id="player"> </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    // 2. This code loads the IFrame Player API code asynchronously.
    var tag = document.createElement('script');

    tag.src = "https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api";
    var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

    // 3. This function creates an <iframe> (and YouTube player)
    //    after the API code downloads.
    var player;
    function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
        player = new YT.Player('player', {
            height: '360',
            width: '640',
            videoId: 'YOUR VIDEO ID',
            events: {
                'onReady': onPlayerReady,
                'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
            }
        });
    }

    // 4. The API will call this function when the video player is ready.
    function onPlayerReady(event) {
        //event.target.playVideo();// Nullifying the action otherwise the video will play as soon as page loads

    }

    // 5. The API calls this function when the player's state changes.
    //    The function indicates that when playing a video (state=1),
    //    the player should play for six seconds and then stop.
    var done = false;
    function onPlayerStateChange(event) {
        if (event.data == YT.PlayerState.PLAYING && !done) {
            setTimeout(stopVideo, 6000);
            done = true;
        }
    }
    function stopVideo() {
        player.stopVideo();
    }

    function ShowPopup() {
        $('#videoModal').modal('show');
        player.playVideo();
    }
    //Stop video when bootstrap popup is closed
    $("#videoModal").on('hide.bs.modal', function () {
        player.stopVideo();
    });

</script>

Answer 3

You can do it with javascript.

Here is an example:

<div class="video-container">
    <div id="player"> </div> <!--<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5YptIh_avrM?rel=0&autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>-->

</div>

<script>
  // 2. This code loads the IFrame Player API code asynchronously.
  var tag = document.createElement('script');

  tag.src = "https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api";
  var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
  firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

  // 3. This function creates an <iframe> (and YouTube player)
  //    after the API code downloads.
  var player;
  function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
    player = new YT.Player('player', {
      height: '720',
      width: '960',
      videoId: 'YOUR_ID_HERE',
      events: {
        'onReady': onPlayerReady,
        'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
      }
    });
  }



  // 4. The API will call this function when the video player is ready.
  function onPlayerReady(event) {
    event.target.playVideo();
    event.target.setVolume(20);
  }

  // 5. The API calls this function when the player's state changes.
  //    The function indicates that when playing a video (state=1),
  //    the player should play for six seconds and then stop.
  var done = false;
  function onPlayerStateChange(event) {

  }
  function stopVideo() {
    player.stopVideo();
  }
</script>

Answer 4

I haven't tested this, but you may be able to use Javascript and call the play function for the player, or even just click the element when the page has loaded.

Answer 5

It can't be done. For various reasons (including, but not limited to data usage), Apple doesn't allow auto-playing of videos.

Please refer to:

Youtube embedded video: autoplay feature not working in iphone