Detect HTML video autoplay prevention

Question

Mobile browsers prevent video autoplay for understandable reasons. I have a video background on a site, so control buttons are out of question, but I thought that I could pop up window with some info and a button, where the user can accept the background video (triggering manual play) or not, and change it to some static pic.

So the question is: is there a way to tell if the autoplay was interrupted by the browser?

I tried onerror but it doesn't fire so I tried to onsuspend as well:

HTML:

<video id='bgvid' src='bgvid.mp4' type='video/mp4' autoplay loop onsuspend='video_suspended()'>

Javascript:

function video_suspended() {
    $bgvideoElement=$("#bgvid").get(0);
        //Check if reason for suspend was completion or browser interruption
        if($bgvideoElement.readyState<1) {
            //Here comes some pop-up window and a button to
            $bgvideoElement.play();
    } 
}

It works pretty well on tablet (Chrome), but on desktop (Chrome) onsuspendkeeps triggering infinitely (Firefox is alright though).

Any ideas on Chrome problem or any alternatives?

If autoplay is blocked, calling `.play()` will not start playing the video. — andi, Feb 05 '16 at 16:23
@andi It does if it's onclick, I've tried it. As I've said it worked well on a tablet, but for some reason it's messed up on desktop Chrome. — Torfiks, Feb 05 '16 at 17:11
@andi the poster attribute works fine on FF/safari but not in iPhones. — Shautieh, Aug 29 '22 at 07:51

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 06 '20 at 05:27

You can always test if current browser will run video.play() method. This method is asynchronous and returns response or error, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLMediaElement/play.

The algorithm of testing consists of checking if we got the error after trying to run .play().

export const checkUserAgentVideoAutoplay = async () => {
  const video = document.querySelector('#video-bg');

  try {
    await video.play();

    video.setAttribute('autoplay', true);

    console.log('video started playing successfully');
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(err, 'video play error');
    // do stuff in case your video is unavailable to play/autoplay
    // show user that video autoplay was aborted  
  }
}

This is what says the console in Safari, which refuses playing .webm video format

AbortError: The operation was aborted.
"video play error"

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 05 '16 at 16:46

There is no javascript standard function that matches your specification, since it's a security feature of mobile browsers... (It can prevent cellular data waste). But, if you have tried the code and it is working only in mobile browsers, you can write a code that detects you if you're on mobile, and if so, enable the handler:

HTML:

<video id='bgvid' src='bgvid.mp4' type='video/mp4' autoplay loop>

Javascript:

window.onload = function() {
    var isMobile = false;

    if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|ipad|iris|kindle|Android|Silk|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows (ce|phone)|xda|xiino/i.test(navigator.userAgent) 
        || /1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i.test(navigator.userAgent.substr(0,4))) isMobile = true;

    if(isMobile) document.getElementById("bgvid").setAttribute("onsuspend", "video_suspended()"); //If we are on mobile, enable onsuspend handler...
};

function video_suspended() {
    $bgvideoElement=$("#bgvid").get(0);
        //Check if reason for suspend was completion or browser interruption
        if($bgvideoElement.readyState<1) {
            //Here comes some pop-up window and a button to
            $bgvideoElement.play();
    } 
}

Thx, but I'd prefer not to use this way to detect if it's mobile. I just can't belive it that they don't shoot an error or make an event to let the user/developer know, that autoplay was interrupted on purpose. — Torfiks, Feb 05 '16 at 17:20

Detect HTML video autoplay prevention

2 Answers2