How to make a AVPlayerViewController go to fullscreen programmatically?

Question

I\'m trying to make a AVPlayerViewController go to full screen mode programmatically, coming from \"embedded\" mode, however this does not appear to be possible with the pub

Answer 1

In iOS11 there are 2 new properties for AVPlayerViewController: entersFullScreenWhenPlaybackBegins and exitsFullScreenWhenPlaybackEnds. You can enable full screen mode right after playback begins and disable it when playback ends with these properties. If you need to enable fullscreen mode after some delay you can use private API methods as ToddH mentioned in his answer. However in iOS11 _transitionToFullScreenViewControllerAnimated:completionHandler: method is not available anymore, there is the same method called _transitionToFullScreenAnimated:completionHandler:. The second method accepts the same arguments as the first one.

I can show an example how to use it. First of all you need to create AVPlayerViewController instance in your UIViewController:

private let playerController : AVPlayerViewController = {

    if let urlForPlayer = URL(string: "your_video_url") {

        $0.player = AVPlayer(url: urlForPlayer)
    }
    return $0
} (AVPlayerViewController())

Then you need to setup view for AVPlayerViewController and add it to your current controller view. Function setupAVplayerController can do it for you:

private func setupAVplayerController() {

    self.addChildViewController(self.playerController)
    self.playerController.view.frame = CGRect(x: 0.0, y: 0.0, width: 200.0, height: 200.0)
    self.view.addSubview(self.playerController.view)
    self.playerController.didMove(toParentViewController: self)
}

Function enterFullscreen forces full screen mode for AVPlayerViewController:

private func enterFullscreen(playerViewController:AVPlayerViewController) {

    let selectorName : String = {

        if #available(iOS 11, *) {

            return "_transitionToFullScreenAnimated:completionHandler:"
        } else {

            return "_transitionToFullScreenViewControllerAnimated:completionHandler:"
        }
    }()
    let selectorToForceFullScreenMode = NSSelectorFromString(selectorName)
    if playerViewController.responds(to: selectorToForceFullScreenMode) {

            playerViewController.perform(selectorToForceFullScreenMode, with: true, with: nil)
    }
}

And now you need to call all these functions where you need it, for example in viewDidAppear:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {

    super.viewDidAppear(animated)

    //Your code

    self.setupAVplayerController()
    self.playerController.player?.play()
    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 10) {

        self.enterFullscreen(playerViewController:self.playerController)
    }
}

Don't forget that this solution based on private API calls that is not recommended to use.