Playing audio from video assets when app enters background

[DrewBourgeois]

Hi there,

How do I configure ASPVideoPlayer to allow audio of video assets to continue when the app enters the background?

Thanks!!! Drew.

[andreipitis]

Hi @DrewBourgeois, I just released version 4.1.0 which adds the functionality you need. If you are using ASPVideoPlayer set the configuration property with allowBackgroundPlay: true.

[DrewBourgeois]

Thanks so much!

[DrewBourgeois]

Hi @andreipitis, I'm trying to have the background audio of a video asset controllable through MPRemoteCommandCenter at the lock screen, but it doesn't seem to work as videoPlayerLayer.player = nil when it enters the background. Do you have any tips on how to make this happen? Thanks!

[andreipitis]

Hi @DrewBourgeois,

The player object needs to be removed from the videoPlayerLayer in order to enable background playback. This does not deallocate the player, there is still a strong reference to it and all the functions to control playback should still work.

You should be able to control the playback with methods like playVideo(), pauseVideo() if you are using ASPVideoPlayerView.

If you are using ASPVideoPlayer you can control playback by accessing the videoPlayerControls property:

//First method
let controls = videoPlayer.videoPlayerControls as? ASPVideoPlayerControls
controls?.pause()

//Second method
let player = videoPlayer.videoPlayerControls.videoPlayer
player?.pauseVideo()

Did you enable Background Modes for audio playback in Capabilities? I can only speculate without seeing the actual code.

[DrewBourgeois]

Hi @andreipitis,

Thanks for that!

The command center controls don't control the playback when the app is in the background and videoPlayerLayer.player = nil is in appDidEnterBackground. The command center controls work fine when the app is in the foreground, or videoPlayerLayer.player = nil is taken out of appDidEnterBackground and the screen is locked.

The following is in ASPVideoPlayerView:

private func commonInit() {
 UIApplication.shared.beginReceivingRemoteControlEvents()
        let commandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()

        commandCenter.pauseCommand.addTarget { (event) -> MPRemoteCommandHandlerStatus in
            self.pauseVideo()
            return .success
        }

        commandCenter.playCommand.addTarget { (event) -> MPRemoteCommandHandlerStatus in
            self.playVideo()
            return .success
        }
}

My AVAudio session is set to AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback and background audio capabilities are set.

Thanks!

[andreipitis]

@DrewBourgeois I tried your code and it seems to be working fine in my case. I can put the app in the background while continuing to play audio and I can pause/resume it from command center.

In my case, the MPRemoteCommandCenter setup was done in a ViewController that had a reference to the player as to not modify the component code. Maybe this change can work for you as well.

UIApplication.shared.beginReceivingRemoteControlEvents() is not necessary when using MPRemoteCommandCenter according to the documentation, but if it still doesn't work, you could try moving it in AppDelegate:

    func applicationDidEnterBackground(_ application: UIApplication) {
        UIApplication.shared.beginReceivingRemoteControlEvents()
    }

[DrewBourgeois]

Hi @andreipitis I got the code working the way I want.

Thanks so much for your help, and also for developing a really great video player!