I'm experiencing issues with audio playback in my React video player component specifically on iOS mobile devices (iPhone/iPad). Even after implementing several recommended solutions, including Apple's own guidelines, the audio still isn't working properly on iOS Safari. It works completely fine on Android. On iOS, I ensured the video doesn't autoplay (it requires user interaction). Here are all the details:
Environment
iOS Safari (latest version)
React 18
TypeScript
Video files: MP4 with AAC audio codec
Current Implementation
const VideoPlayer: React.FC<VideoPlayerProps> = ({
src,
autoplay = true,
}) => {
const videoRef = useRef<HTMLVideoElement>(null);
const isIOSDevice = isIOS(); // Custom iOS detection
const [touchStartY, setTouchStartY] = useState<number | null>(null);
const [touchStartTime, setTouchStartTime] = useState<number | null>(null);
// Handle touch start event for gesture detection
const handleTouchStart = (e: React.TouchEvent) => {
setTouchStartY(e.touches[0].clientY);
setTouchStartTime(Date.now());
};
// Handle touch end event with gesture validation
const handleTouchEnd = (e: React.TouchEvent) => {
if (touchStartY === null || touchStartTime === null) return;
const touchEndY = e.changedTouches[0].clientY;
const touchEndTime = Date.now();
// Validate if it's a legitimate tap (not a scroll)
const verticalDistance = Math.abs(touchEndY - touchStartY);
const touchDuration = touchEndTime - touchStartTime;
// Only trigger for quick taps (< 200ms) with minimal vertical movement
if (touchDuration < 200 && verticalDistance < 10) {
handleVideoInteraction(e);
}
setTouchStartY(null);
setTouchStartTime(null);
};
// Simplified video interaction handler following Apple's guidelines
const handleVideoInteraction = (e: React.MouseEvent | React.TouchEvent) => {
console.log('Video interaction detected:', {
type: e.type,
timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
});
// Ensure keyboard is dismissed (iOS requirement)
if (document.activeElement instanceof HTMLElement) {
document.activeElement.blur();
}
e.stopPropagation();
const video = videoRef.current;
if (!video || !video.paused) return;
// Attempt playback in response to user gesture
video.play().catch(err => console.error('Error playing video:', err));
};
// Effect to handle video source and initial state
useEffect(() => {
console.log('VideoPlayer props:', { src, loadingState });
setError(null);
setLoadingState('initial');
setShowPlayButton(false); // Never show custom play button on iOS
if (videoRef.current) {
// Set crossOrigin attribute for CORS
videoRef.current.crossOrigin = "anonymous";
if (autoplay && !hasPlayed && !isIOSDevice) {
// Only autoplay on non-iOS devices
dismissKeyboard();
setHasPlayed(true);
}
}
}, [src, autoplay, hasPlayed, isIOSDevice]);
return (
<Paper
shadow="sm"
radius="md"
withBorder
onClick={handleVideoInteraction}
onTouchStart={handleTouchStart}
onTouchEnd={handleTouchEnd}
>
<video
ref={videoRef}
autoPlay={!isIOSDevice && autoplay}
playsInline
controls
crossOrigin="anonymous"
preload="auto"
onLoadedData={handleLoadedData}
onLoadedMetadata={handleMetadataLoaded}
onEnded={handleVideoEnd}
onError={handleError}
onPlay={dismissKeyboard}
onClick={handleVideoInteraction}
onTouchStart={handleTouchStart}
onTouchEnd={handleTouchEnd}
{...(!isFirefoxBrowser && {
"x-webkit-airplay": "allow",
"x-webkit-playsinline": true,
"webkit-playsinline": true
})}
>
<source src={videoSrc} type="video/mp4" />
</video>
</Paper>
);
};
Apple's Guidelines Implementation
Removed custom play controls on iOS
Using native video controls for user interaction
Ensuring audio playback is triggered by user gesture
Following Apple's audio session guidelines
Properly handling the canplaythrough event
Current Behavior
Video plays but without sound on iOS mobile
Mute/unmute button in native video controls doesn't work
Audio works fine on desktop browsers and Android devices
Videos are confirmed to have AAC audio codec
No console errors related to audio playback
User interaction doesn't trigger audio as expected
Questions
Are there any additional iOS-specific requirements I'm missing?
Could this be related to iOS audio session handling?
Are there known issues with React's handling of video elements on iOS?
Should I be implementing additional audio context initialization?
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
General
RSS for tagExplore the integration of web technologies within your app. Discuss building web-based apps, leveraging Safari functionalities, and integrating with web services.
Selecting any option will automatically load the page
Post
Replies
Boosts
Views
Activity
Hi everyone,
I’m working on a web project developed on Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), where we’ve built a custom component that embeds Apple Podcasts episodes using the official iframe provided via https://embed.podcasts.apple.com.
Everything works correctly from a rendering point of view, but we are now exploring ways to track user interactions with the embedded player, specifically events such as: start, play, pause,
progress milestones (e.g. 25%, 50%, etc.).
This data would be used to send analytics events to Adobe Analytics.
So far, we haven’t found any documentation or JavaScript API that would allow us to listen to these events.
We'd like to ask:
Is there any official way to track playback events from an Apple Podcasts iframe?
Any information, clarification, or direction would be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Thanks,
Adriana
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
We’re seeing an issue in our Safari Web Extension where not all cookies from the Set-Cookie response header are accessible. We are using macOS 15.4 and Safari 18.4.
In the webRequest.onHeadersReceived callback, the Set-Cookie header returned by Safari only includes some of the cookies set by the server. If multiple Set-Cookie headers are present, we seem to receive only a partial list, some cookies are missing entirely.
In Chrome and Firefox, the same callback provides all cookies set by the server without issue.
We are looking for assistance in fixing these issues and having our Safari Extension function the same as it does in Firefox and Chrome.
I am using SFSafariViewController to process payments via a Stripe checkout URL. Once the payment is completed, the user is redirected to a success URL. I have also added associated domains for deep linking. Below is my implementation:
func presentCheckout(url: String) {
showProgressHUD()
let checkoutURL = URL(string: url)!
safariVC = SFSafariViewController(url: checkoutURL)
safariVC.delegate = self
self.present(safariVC, animated: true)
}
// Delegate method implementations
func safariViewControllerDidFinish(_ controller: SFSafariViewController) {
print("SafariViewController dismissed")
// Handle dismissal
}
func safariViewController(_ controller: SFSafariViewController, initialLoadDidRedirectTo URL: URL) {
print(URL.absoluteString)
if URL.absoluteString.contains("xsworld/payment/stripe/checkout/success") {
controller.dismiss(animated: true) {
if URL.absoluteString.contains("/v1/resources/xsworld/payment/stripe/checkout") {
NotificationCenter.default.post(
name: Notification.Name("StripePaymentStatus"),
object: nil,
userInfo: ["url": URL]
)
}
}
} else if URL.absoluteString.contains("xsworld/payment/stripe/checkout/cancel") {
// Handle failure
NotificationCenter.default.post(
name: Notification.Name("StripePaymentStatus"),
object: nil,
userInfo: ["url": URL]
)
}
}
func safariViewController(_ controller: SFSafariViewController, didCompleteInitialLoad didLoadSuccessfully: Bool) {
if didLoadSuccessfully {
print("Initial page loaded successfully")
} else {
print("Initial page load failed")
}
}
Issue:
The safariViewController(_:initialLoadDidRedirectTo:) method does not always get called after the payment is completed. Sometimes it works as expected, and sometimes it does not trigger at all.
What I’ve Tried:
Ensuring the associated domains for deep linking are correctly set up.
Checking the success and failure URLs.
Debugging to see if the redirect happens but is not detected.
What I Need Help With:
I want to ensure that the redirection always works after the payment process is completed, whether through deep linking or another reliable approach. How can I guarantee that my app correctly detects and handles the redirect every time?
Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated.
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Safari Developer Tools
Safari Services
Safari
Safari Extensions
I'm making a Safari extension for learning languages. I need speech synthesis for any language the user chooses to learn.
I initially tried to make this work within JavaScript, but Safari 18 doesn't reliably list voices for all languages on the web SpeechSynthesis API as described here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79179072/how-do-you-use-a-japanese-voice-with-speechsynthesis-in-safari-ios-18
As a workaround, I've had to use AVSpeechSynthesizer in SafariWebExtensionHandler (NSExtensionRequestHandling implementation for the extension). This works in the simulator but not on a real device. I've found this note from Apple in a StackOverflow reply:
"Safari extensions are very short-lived, hence not fit for audio playback or speech synthesis. Not being able to validate an app extension in Xcode with a manually-added plist entry for background audio is the designed behavior. The general recommendation is to synthesize speech using JavaScript in conjunction with the Web Speech API."
Unfortunately, the suggestion to use the Web Speech API is unsuitable as I just explained.
Is there a way to set up a background process in the host app that can do speech synthesis? The app extension would need a way to communicate with this process, and start it if it's not running. Is that possible?
Push Notification Issue in iOS PWA App
We’ve been trying to implement push notifications in our iOS app, which is a wrapper around a Vite PWA built using PWA Builder. Here's a detailed overview of the issues we’re facing:
Problem Summary
We originally had a working Vite PWA and used Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for push notifications. When converting this PWA to an iOS app using PWA Builder:
The notification permission prompt did not behave as expected in Safari.
Even after requesting permission via a user gesture (e.g., button press), FCM token was not received.
On Safari (both Mac and Windows), permission sometimes works, but the token isn’t saved until Safari is closed and reopened.
In the iOS PWA app, the FCM token never gets retrieved.
We tried the same process on Chrome, and everything works flawlessly there.
What We’ve Tried
Wrapped the permission request and FCM token logic in a user gesture (e.g., button click), as recommended.
Confirmed our manifest includes all necessary fields (see below).
Tested across macOS, Windows, Safari (desktop), and the iOS app.
Manifest.json
{
"name": "Periscopio",
"short_name": "Periscopio",
"start_url": "/",
"display": "standalone",
"background_color": "#f2f2f2",
"lang": "en",
"scope": "/",
"description": "Facilitates the collection of primary data for market research purposes.",
"icons": [
{
"src": "/android-chrome-192x192.png",
"sizes": "192x192",
"type": "image/png",
"purpose": "any"
},
{
"src": "/android-chrome-512x512.png",
"sizes": "512x512",
"type": "image/png",
"purpose": "any"
},
{
"src": "/maskable_icon_x192.png",
"sizes": "192x192",
"type": "image/png",
"purpose": "maskable"
},
{
"src": "/maskable_icon_x512.png",
"sizes": "512x512",
"type": "image/png",
"purpose": "maskable"
}
],
"edge_side_panel": {
"preferred_width": 400
},
"display_override": [
"window-controls-overlay",
"standalone"
],
"theme_color": "#08244c",
"orientation": "portrait"
}
Core Logic (Plain TypeScript)
1. Request Notification Permission + FCM Token
async function handleRequestPermission(): Promise<string | null> {
try {
console.log("Requesting notification permission...");
const permission = await Notification.requestPermission();
console.log("Notification permission result:", permission);
if (permission === "denied") {
console.error("Notification permission was denied.");
return null;
}
const token = await requestFCMToken();
console.log("FCM Token:", token);
if (token) {
console.log("Notification setup successful.");
return token;
} else {
console.error("Failed to retrieve FCM token.");
return null;
}
} catch (error) {
console.error("Error requesting FCM token:", error);
return null;
}
}
2. FCM Token Logic
async function requestFCMToken(): Promise<string | undefined> {
try {
let permission = Notification.permission;
if (permission === "default") {
console.log("Requesting notification permission...");
permission = await Notification.requestPermission();
}
if (permission === "granted") {
console.log("Notification permission granted.");
const isSupportedBrowser = await isSupported();
if (!isSupportedBrowser) {
console.error("This browser does not support FCM.");
return;
}
const registration = await navigator.serviceWorker.register("/firebase-messaging-sw.js");
console.log("Service Worker registered:", registration);
const token = await getToken(cloudMessaging, {
vapidKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_VAPID_KEY_HERE",
serviceWorkerRegistration: registration,
});
if (token) {
console.log("FCM Token:", token);
localStorage.setItem("fcmToken", token);
return token;
} else {
console.warn("No registration token available. Request permission to generate one.");
return;
}
} else if (permission === "denied") {
console.warn("Permission to notify was denied.");
return;
} else {
console.warn("Notification permission not granted.");
return;
}
} catch (error) {
console.error("Error getting FCM token:", error);
return;
}
}
Request for Help
We’d really appreciate support from anyone who’s successfully implemented FCM push notifications in a Vite PWA wrapped as an iOS app using PWA Builder.
Is there something we’re missing about how iOS Safari handles push permissions in PWA mode?
Could there be an issue with the service worker or the manifest setup that causes the token not to register?
Any Safari-specific quirks to be aware of?
Thanks in advance!
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
Good morning fellow developers,
For a while i am struggeling with providing sound to my users on IOS (Safari on Mac is no problem and every other device is not a problem) (we have an existing phone system and made a chat as well), the case is very simple: the notification sound is only for users who are logged in and online for chat.
i have tried multiple things:
Audio play with javascript (start with mute, play when user clicks a button so the sound is familiar, play when user clicks a button and directly pause it and continue when needed)
PWA: the dashboard has been made available as pwa and notifications using google firebase. The popup does show for notifcations to be allowed (and receiving the notifications does work on any other device) But any IOS device cannot register.
The information i find is that notifications were supported with 16.4 or higher but also have been deprecated around IOS 17, auto play is not allowed.
We have an app in development for our product as well were we will have a notification which will handle this, but that is not the solution we can use now.
Long story, short question: is it still somehow possible to push a notification to the user when using the PWA or play a sound in the browser (based on an ajax function). The app/website wont be in the background, so it will always be on the screen.
Languages we use: html/javascript (mostly vanilla)/php
I'm not loving the huge Favorites icons in Safari on MacOS 26, is there a way to reduce the size of them so that we can see more favorites on the list without scrolling down?
PWA works perfectly fine in safari browsers in mac but in mobile devices it
is not working it just shows, There is no internet connection. found a fix from ios release - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes/safari-17_2-release-notes
but actually it is not solving the issue. in my case even it is not throwing the issue -
fix is - Fixed a cache miss bug in DOMCache that triggered service worker fetch errors. (115740959) (FB13188943)
Hi. I'm a developer of Tab Finder (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tab-finder/id6741719894)
My problem is that every time i switch from my first window to a second window, the tabs in the validateToolbarItem() are INcorrect on a first call, but when I switch back from the second window to my main window, the tabs are CORRECT even on a first call.
To demonstrate it, i recorded a video: https://youtu.be/RwskzrSJ8u0
To run the same sample extension from the video, you can get the code from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/kopyl/test-tabs-change
Its only purpose is to log URLs of an active page of all tabs.
The SafariExtensionHandler's code of the sample app is very simple:
import SafariServices
func printOpenTabsHost(in window: SFSafariWindow) async {
let tabs = await window.allTabs()
log("Logging tabs for a new window: \(window.hashValue)")
for tab in tabs {
let page = await tab.activePage()
let properties = await page?.properties()
let url = properties?.url
log(url?.absoluteString ?? "No URL")
}
}
class SafariExtensionViewController: SFSafariExtensionViewController {
static let shared = SafariExtensionViewController()
}
class SafariExtensionHandler: SFSafariExtensionHandler {
override func validateToolbarItem(in window: SFSafariWindow, validationHandler: @escaping ((Bool, String) -> Void)) {
Task {
await printOpenTabsHost(in: window)
}
validationHandler(true, "")
}
override func popoverViewController() -> SFSafariExtensionViewController {
return SafariExtensionViewController.shared
}
}
Could you please tell if i'm missing something and how to see the actual tabs inside the overridden validateToolbarItem call of the SafariExtensionHandler (or in any other way, I'm okay with any implementation as long as it works).
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Extensions
Safari Services
Safari and Web
Safari Extensions
We seem to be having an issue with a webservice here which is used within our network and IOS Safari. For the service to work , we need to access it with an unencrypted HTTP API call, which acts as a trigger. The server does not respond to HTTPS requests. (the HTTP API call does not contain any data that is privacy sensitive or that can be abused)
Since recently the service does not seem to work anymore properly, but this only happens with Safari and IOS. With all other browsers the service is still working normally, only with Safarai it fails.
No matter what I do in the settings of the phone, the Safar browser seems to stop immediately after the HTTP request. What is going on here ??
The issue seems to occur only when you don't have an iCloud+ account. With an iCloud+ account I get the same issue when you switch Apple Private Relay on, but that make sense. When I have Apple Private Relay switched off, there is no issue.
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
I'm encountering an issue with ReactPlayer where videos fail to play when the playback rate is set to 3x, but this problem only occurs on iOS. The same functionality works perfectly fine on Android devices and desktop browsers like Chrome and Firefox.
Here are the details of my setup:
ReactPlayer version: 2.16.0
Video format: [MP4, hls ]
Tested devices: iPhone 13
Expected behavior: Videos should play smoothly at 3x speed.
Actual behavior: Videos fail to load or play when playbackRate is set to 3.0.
I've read that iOS Safari might have limitations regarding playback rate due to performance or energy efficiency, but I couldn't find any official documentation to confirm this.
If anyone has faced a similar issue or knows the root cause (or a workaround), I'd really appreciate your insights. Additionally, if there are official resources or documentation about playback rate limitations on iOS Safari, please share them.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
I'm using navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition to retrieve the users coordinates in a PWA built with Nextjs. getCurrentPosition is called by clicking on a button. If getCurrentPosition is called afterwards, the cached value is returned. On Safari, If I refresh the page, or logout, login and call getCurrentPosition again, the getCurrentPosition error callback is called with an error code 2 - POSITION_UNAVAILABLE. After around five minutes, getCurrentPosition can be called again.
Is there some kind of throttling restriction on Safari navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition?
I'm trying to set up a smart app banner for my app, but it doesn't appear on the website when I try to test it.
I have the meta tag on my website:
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=6740216045" />
When I inspect the website, I can see that the meta tag is showing up in the head, but the banner is nowhere to be found. I tried clearing website data but still no dice.
I'm running apache with following configuration.
/cc require TLS client certificate
/ not require TLS client certificate
Starting with ios 18.4, accessing /cc after / fails with following error:
AH02261: Re-negotiation handshake failed, referer: https://www.example.com/...
SSL Library Error: error:1417C0C7:SSL routines:tls_process_client_certificate:peer did not return a certificate -- No CAs known to server for verification?
It seems like ios 18.4 does not support TLS re-negotiation.
(It worked with ios 18.3 and before)
Is this an expected behavior or a bug?
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
If "Not Secure Connection Warnings" is enabled in the Settings > App > Safari, are no HTTP connections allowed? Setting NSAppTransportSecurity does not seem to apply either.
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
iOS 18.4 introduces the new WKWebExtension API to support extensions in WKWebView. However, for extensions that have migrated to Manifest V3 and use an extension service worker as the background script, it's currently not possible to inspect them through Safari.
This is only thing I can see, I don't know how to inspect the details of the "background.js"
I'm wondering—has this changed? Is it now possible to inspect extension service workers?
I am using GTM in my project, and the OneTrust cookie consent script is loading in GTM. After ruling out iOS 18.3.1, I am unable to click on the OneTrust preference center since the GTM script is not loading.
This issue i faced for safari browser
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General
Hello there,
For a video like this <video src="blob:safari-web-extension://***" autoplay="" loop="" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%; object-fit: cover; z-index: -1;"></video>, no matter if its local or remote, blob or mp4 files, is constantly being reloaded (refetched? revalidated?) if the loop tag is added. I can confirm there is actual constant traffic from the server based on my server logs. I am running iOS/macOS 26.
Within installed PWAs, the navigator.language / navigator.languages property return a value, that is not according to the Safari settings and defers from the navigator.language / navigator.languages in the browser itself.
Example: Safari settings set to "German", returns "de-DE" in browser mode, but within the installed webApp it returns "en-GB".
I thought this might be due to the overall phone language settings, but this is not the case. Even is the phone is completely set to German, the navigator returns "en-GB" within an installed PWA.
My phone is also not English/British, there is no reason why "en-GB" should show up.
Topic:
Safari & Web
SubTopic:
General