HarmonyOS AVPlayer Long Video Development: Smooth Interaction, Stable Playback & PiP

Interaction Smoothness: Gesture Controls and Orientation Switching

Long video viewing involves frequent brightness adjustments and orientation changes. The article demonstrates two key interaction patterns:

1. Invisible Gesture Brightness Control

Instead of a traditional progress bar, a transparent slider at the screen edge combined with setWindowBrightness() enables real-time brightness adjustment via vertical finger swipes, significantly improving tactile responsiveness.

2. Flexible Landscape/Portrait Switching

AVPlayer provides flexible screen orientation control:

Auto-sensing: Set orientation to auto_rotation_restricted for sensor-based automatic switching.

Manual lock: Use window.Orientation API to respond to user-initiated switches, accommodating personalized viewing postures.

Animated GIFs illustrate both interactions.

Playback Stability: Handling Interruptions

Incoming calls and background switches are mandatory scenarios for long video playback. Proper handling ensures continuity.

1. Audio Focus Management

When subsequent audio (e.g., calls, alarms) occurs, the system forcibly interrupts the playing app. By listening to the audioInterrupt event, the app should automatically pause on interruption start and optionally resume after interruption ends, avoiding audio conflicts and abrupt experience.

2. Seamless Foreground/Background Resume

When users temporarily leave and return, video should continue from the exact progress, not restart.

Page lifecycle: Pause in onPageHide, resume in onPageShow.

Precise progress control: Combine AVPlayer's seek capability to accurately locate the second the user left, achieving smooth "resume from breakpoint".

A GIF demonstrates the seamless resume.

Full Functionality: Picture-in-Picture and Background Audio

Multitasking is mainstream; long video apps need "small window playback" and "background audio".

1. Picture-in-Picture (PiP)

Supporting "watching while messaging" is a user demand. Enable PiP via setAutoStartEnabled(true) and register stateChange and controlPanelActionEvent callbacks to manage PiP lifecycle and user play/pause actions, keeping video floating at hand.

2. Background Audio Playback

For audiobook and radio scenarios, audio must continue when screen locked or app backgrounded. Declare audioPlayback background task permission in module.json5 and manage via backgroundTaskManager to ensure continuous audio output.

GIFs illustrate both features.

Extended Reading: Comprehensive Playback Guide

The AVPlayer Video Playback Series Practices document covers additional high-frequency scenarios:

Short video: Millisecond-level start-on-swipe via LazyForEach loading and instance reuse.

Network video: Weak network anti-jitter, HLS/DASH compatibility, smart buffering strategies.

Embedded short video: Best practices for in-feed playback.

Basic playback control: Standard implementation of play/pause, speed, mute.

Links to official HarmonyOS developer documentation are provided for each scenario.