Hi everyone, We are working on a prototype app for Apple Vision Pro that is similar in functionality to Omegle or Chatroulette, but exclusively for Vision Pro owners. The core idea is: – a matching system where one user connects to another through a virtual persona; – real-time video and audio transmission; – time limits for sessions with the ability to extend them; – users can skip a match and move on to the next one. We have explored WebRTC and Twilio, but unfortunately, they don’t fit our use case. Question: What alternative services or SDKs are available for implementing real-time video/audio communication on Vision Pro that would work with this scenario? Has anyone encountered a similar challenge and can recommend which technologies or tools to use? Thanks in advance!

I'm writing some camera functionality that uses AVCaptureVideoDataOutput. I've set it up so that it calls my AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate on a background thread, by making my own dispatch_queue and configuring the AVCaptureVideoDataOutput. My question is then, if I configure my AVCaptureSession differently, or even stop it altogether, is this guaranteed to flush all pending jobs on my background thread? For example, does [AVCaptureSession stopRunning] imply a blocking call until all pending frame-callbacks are done? I have a more practical example below, showing how I am accessing something from the foreground thread from the background thread, but I wonder when/how it's safe to clean up that resource. I have setup similar to the following: // Foreground thread logic dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_queue_create("qt_avf_camera_queue", nullptr); AVCaptureSession *captureSession = [[AVCaptureSession alloc] init]; setupInputDevice(captureSession); // Connects the AVCaptureDevice... // Store some arbitrary data to be attached to the frame, stored on the foreground thread FrameMetaData frameMetaData = ...; MySampleBufferDelegate *sampleBufferDelegate = [MySampleBufferDelegate alloc]; // Capture frameMetaData by reference in lambda [sampleBufferDelegate setFrameMetaDataGetter: [&frameMetaData]() { return &frameMetaData; }]; AVCaptureVideoDataOutput *captureVideoDataOutput = [[AVCaptureVideoDataOutput alloc] init]; [captureVideoDataOutput setSampleBufferDelegate:sampleBufferDelegate queue:queue]; [captureSession addOutput:captureVideoDataOutput]; [captureSession startRunning]; [captureSession stopRunning]; // Is it now safe to destroy frameMetaData, or do we need manual barrier? And then in MySampleBufferDelegate: - (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureOutput *)captureOutput didOutputSampleBuffer:(CMSampleBufferRef)sampleBuffer fromConnection:(AVCaptureConnection *)connection { // Invokes the callback set above FrameMetaData *frameMetaData = frameMetaDataGetter(); emitSampleBuffer(sampleBuffer, frameMetaData); }

Because I want to control the grid size and number of HEIC images myself, I decided to perform HEVC encoding manually and then generate the HEIC image. Previously, I used VTCompressionSession to accomplish this task, and the results were satisfactory. It worked perfectly on iOS 16 through iOS 18 — in other words, it was able to generate correct HEVC encoding, and its CMFormatDescription should also have been correct, since I relied on it to generate the decoderConfig; otherwise, the final image would have decoding issues. However, it can no longer generate a valid HEIC image on a physical device running iOS 26. Interestingly, it still works fine on the iOS 26 simulator — it only fails on real hardware. The abnormal result is that the image becomes completely black, although the image dimensions are still correct. After my troubleshooting, I suspect that the encoding behavior of VTCompressionSession has been modified on iOS 26, which causes the final hvc1 encoding I pass in to be incorrect. I created a VTCompressionSession using the following configuration. var newSession: VTCompressionSession! var status = VTCompressionSessionCreate( allocator: kCFAllocatorDefault, width: Int32(frameSize.width), height: Int32(frameSize.height), codecType: kCMVideoCodecType_HEVC, encoderSpecification: nil, imageBufferAttributes: nil, compressedDataAllocator: nil, outputCallback: nil, refcon: nil, compressionSessionOut: &newSession ) try check(status, VideoToolboxErrorDomain) let properties: [CFString: Any] = [ kVTCompressionPropertyKey_AllowFrameReordering: false, kVTCompressionPropertyKey_AllowTemporalCompression: false, kVTCompressionPropertyKey_RealTime: false, kVTCompressionPropertyKey_MaximizePowerEfficiency: false, kVTCompressionPropertyKey_ProfileLevel: profileLevel, kVTCompressionPropertyKey_Quality: quality.rawValue, ] status = VTSessionSetProperties(newSession, propertyDictionary: properties as CFDictionary) try check(status, VideoToolboxErrorDomain) { VTCompressionSessionInvalidate(newSession) } Then use the following code to encode each Grid of the image. let status = VTCompressionSessionEncodeFrame( session, imageBuffer: buffer, presentationTimeStamp: presentationTimeStamp, duration: frameDuration, frameProperties: nil, infoFlagsOut: nil) { [weak self] status, _, sampleBuffer in try check(status, VideoToolboxErrorDomain) if let sampleBuffer { let encodedImage = try self.encodedImage(from: sampleBuffer) // handle encodedImage } } try check(status, VideoToolboxErrorDomain) If I try to display this abnormal image in the App, my console outputs the following error, so it can be inferred that the issue probably occurred during decoding. createImageBlock:3029: *** ERROR: CGImageBlockCreate {0, 0, 2316, 6176} - data is NULL callDecodeImage:2411: *** ERROR: decodeImageImp failed - NULL _blockArray createImageBlock:3029: *** ERROR: CGImageBlockCreate {0, 0, 2316, 6176} - data is NULL callDecodeImage:2411: *** ERROR: decodeImageImp failed - NULL _blockArray createImageBlock:3029: *** ERROR: CGImageBlockCreate {0, 0, 2316, 6176} - data is NULL callDecodeImage:2411: *** ERROR: decodeImageImp failed - NULL _blockArray It needs to be emphasized again that this code used to work fine in the past, and the issue only occurs on an iOS 26 physical device. I noticed that iOS 26 has introduced many new properties, but I’m not sure whether some of these new properties must be set in the new system, and there’s no information about this in the official documentation.

We build mobile apps for creators to edit their videos. Post editing the video, the creator has to export the video so that it can be uploaded to Youtube. The export is a time consuming and GPU intensive process. The creator can exit the app due to various reasons like receiving the call, putting the app in background etc. This causes the export to fail :( Keeping this limitation in mind there was an announcement from Apple that with the IOS 26 launch would start to support background GPU access. Here is the official documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/BundleResources/Entitlements/com.apple.developer.background-tasks.continued-processing.gpu When we tried using this feature, we were not able to get it to work on IOS 26. We stumbled upon this ticket(https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/797538?answerId=854825022#854825022) in the Apple Developer forum, in which possibly an Apple engineer claims it is supported ONLY for iPadOS 26. This is a very big bummer for us. 96% of the users are on iPhone(compared to iPad), and if we refer to the official documentation above, it claims that this feature should work on IOS 26. This feature is extremely important for having the best user experience and reducing user frustration and will be useful for other video editing apps. Looking forward to a resolution.

Hi everyone, I’ve encountered an issue with the showsPlaybackControls property in AVPlayerViewController after updating to iOS 18. Even though it’s set to true, the native playback controls (play, pause, etc.) are no longer appearing as they used to in previous iOS versions. This behavior was consistent and worked perfectly prior to iOS 18. Additionally, I’m seeing the same problem when using the VideoPlayer in SwiftUI. The native controls that should appear by default seem to have vanished after the update. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any workaround or additional configuration required to restore the native controls? Any help or insights would be appreciated. Thanks! struct CustomPlayerView: UIViewControllerRepresentable { let player: AVPlayer func updateUIViewController(_ playerController: AVPlayerViewController, context: Context) { playerController.player = player playerController.showsPlaybackControls = true player.play() } func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> AVPlayerViewController { return AVPlayerViewController() } }

In iOS, when I use AVPlayerViewController to play back a slow motion video, it has a "ramp-up" stage at the start and a "ramp-down" stage at the end, and the video plays at the normal speed (i.e. not slow motion) during these stages. My question is: are these non-slow-motion stages defined in the video file itself? (e.g. some kind of meta data?) Or, is it just a playback approach used by AVPlayerViewController ? Thanks!

We are processing videos with Core Image filters in our apps, using an AVMutableVideoComposition (for playback/preview and export). For older devices, we want to limit the resolution at which the video frames are processed for performance and memory reasons. Ideally, we would tell AVFoundation to give us video frames with a defined maximum size into our composition. We thought setting the renderSize property of the composition to the desired size would do that. However, this only changes the size of output frames, not the size of the source frames that come into the composition's handler block. For example: let composition = AVMutableVideoComposition(asset: asset, applyingCIFiltersWithHandler: { request in let input = request.sourceImage // <- this still has the video's original size // ... }) composition.renderSize = CGSize(width: 1280, heigth: 720) // for example So if the user selects a 4K video, our filter chain gets 4K input frames. Sure, we can scale them down inside our pipeline, but this costs resources and especially a lot of memory. It would be way better if AVFoundation could decode the video frames in the desired size already before passing it into the composition handler. Is there a way to tell AVFoundation to load smaller video frames?

Our iOS/AppleTV video content playback app uses AVPlayer to play HLS video streams and supports both custom and system playback UIs. The Fairplay content key is retrieved using AVContentKeySession. AirPlay is supported too. When the iPhone is connected to a TV through the lightning Apple Digital AV Adapter (A1438), the app is mirrored as expected. Problem: when using an iPhone or iPad on iOS 18.1.1, FairPlay-protected HLS streams are not played and a CoreMediaErrorDomain -12035 error is received by the AVPlayerItem. Also, once the issue has occurred, the mirroring freezes (the TV indefinitely displays the app playback screen) although the app works fine on the iOS device. The content key retrieval works as expected (I can see that 2 content key requests are made by the system by the way, probably one for the local playback and one for the adapter, as when AirPlaying) and the error is thrown after providing the AVContentKeyResponse. Unfortunately, and as far as I know, there is not documentation on CoreMediaErrorDomain errors so I don't know what -12035 means. The issue does not occur: on an iPhone on iOS 17.7 (even with FairPlay-protected HLS streams) when playing DRM-free video content (whatever the iOS version) when using the USB-C AV Adapter (whatever the iOS version) Also worth noting: the issue does not occur with other video playback apps such as Apple TV or Netflix although I don't have any details on the kind of streams these apps play and the way the FairPlay content key is retrieved (if any) so I don't know if it is relevant.

I noticed that AVSampleBufferDisplayLayerContentLayer is not released when the AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer is removed and released. It is possible to reproduce the issue with the simple code: import AVFoundation import UIKit class ViewController: UIViewController { var displayBufferLayer: AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer? override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() let displayBufferLayer = AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer() displayBufferLayer.videoGravity = .resizeAspectFill displayBufferLayer.frame = view.bounds view.layer.insertSublayer(displayBufferLayer, at: 0) self.displayBufferLayer = displayBufferLayer DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 1) { self.displayBufferLayer?.flush() self.displayBufferLayer?.removeFromSuperlayer() self.displayBufferLayer = nil } } } In my real project I have mutliple AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer created and removed in different view controllers, this is problematic because the amount of leaked AVSampleBufferDisplayLayerContentLayer keeps increasing. I wonder that maybe I should use a pool of AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer and reuse them, however I'm slightly afraid that this can also lead to strange bugs. Edit: It doesn't cause leaks on iOS 18 device but leaks on iPad Pro, iOS 17.5.1

Safari is supposed to support animated AVIF images since version 16, but the ones I've tested perform very poorly, even on an M4 Mac Mini running Sequoia 15.1.1. I believe Safari delegates decoding to the operating system itself, so this issue also happens in Live Preview in the finder, when I try to preview a file. Sample file here: https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/cdn.paintera.org/test/sample.avif 322KB file, 5 seconds long, 12fps This plays perfectly on Chrome on Mac OS, but is slow and laggy on Safari and Live Preview (it takes about 6.5 seconds to finish the 5 second video). Does anyone know how to fix this or workaround this issue?

Hello Apple Community, We are working on a real-time streaming feature where we receive chunks of raw MP4 data through a custom protocol and store them in a buffer (array). Our goal is to use these data chunks to play a continuous video stream in AVPlayer. What We've Tried: Custom URL Scheme with AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate: We implemented a custom URL scheme (customscheme://) to serve the buffered data using AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate. The method shouldWaitForLoadingOfRequestedResource is called only during the initial allocation. It doesn't get triggered when new chunks are appended to the buffer. Despite appending new data to the buffer, AVPlayer doesn’t request further chunks from the delegate. What We Need: We are looking for a solution where: The player continuously fetches data from the buffer as new chunks are added. The playback remains smooth and uninterrupted, even with real-time data being appended. Ideally, this solution works with AVPlayer while adhering to HLS-like behavior without implementing an HLS server. Questions: Is AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate the right approach for this use case? If so, how can we ensure shouldWaitForLoadingOfRequestedResource is called whenever new data is available in the buffer? Are there alternative APIs or recommended patterns for playing real-time MP4 data chunks in AVPlayer? Would implementing a custom FFmpeg-based player be necessary, or can this be achieved using AVPlayer and its APIs? We appreciate any guidance, suggestions, or examples that can help us achieve this. Thank you!

It's 2025, and I see that trends in video storage and streaming have changed significantly. Nowadays, CDN combined with domain-based video protection is the most popular solution. Does anyone have more insights into this technology or real-world experience with it?

I was advised to post here by a Code-Level Support representative. Below will be a copy of my initial issue report, and my minimally reproductive test project can be found at the following GitHub repository URL... https://github.com/PierceLBrooks/vtUudSeiNalCmake DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM When encoding H264 video codec data using the VTCompressionSession API facilities available through the VideoToolbox framework on MacOS, the resultant bitstream will invariably include Unregistered User Data SEI NAL units that carry the UUID "47564adc-5c4c-433f-94ef-c5113cd143a8". The proprietary decoders we are working with currently struggle with filtering out these NAL units. Can you explain what purpose this serves, what the meaning of the byte-wise unit payloads are, and which configuration settings the VideoToolbox encoder instance specifically depends upon for triggering the insertion of them? STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Invoke the instantiation of a new VideoToolbox H264 encoder object by calling VTCompressionSessionCreate with appropriate configuration flags. 2. Push frames through the encoder, receiving their encoded byte buffer counterparts through an asynchronous callback. 3. Write that encoded data to some buffer which will contain the totality of the encoder's output. 4. Inspect the NAL units of the initial portion of this output bitstream buffer. 5. Observe the presence of at least one Unregistered User Data SEI NAL unit carrying the "47564adc-5c4c-433f-94ef-c5113cd143a8" UUID near the beginning of the output segment.

Is there any way we can detect the status of the Show When Muted and Show on Skip Back device settings in code ?

When using AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer to play uncompressed H.264 and H.265 video with B-frames more than 7, frame drops occur. The more B-frames there are, the more noticeable the frame drops become, for example 15 bframes. Use FFmpeg to transcode a video file with visible timestamps and frame numbers (x264 or x265 ): ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -vf "drawtext=fontsize=45:text=%{pts} %{n}:y=400" -c:v libx264 -x264-params "bframes=15:b-adapt=0" -crf 30 -y x264_bf15.mp4 ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -vf "drawtext=fontsize=45:text=%{pts} %{n}:y=400" -c:v libx265 -x265-params "bframes=15:b-adapt=0" -crf 30 -y x265_bf15.mp4 Use the demo player from this repository to reproduce the issue: https://github.com/msfrms/CustomPlayer frame drops can be observed. And following log can be found in devices console. mediaserverd <<<< IQ-CA >>>> piqca_gmstats_dump: FIQCA(0x1266f4000) recent frames: enqueued: 184, displayed: 138, dropped: 42, flushed: 0, evicted: 3, >16ms late: 2 PS. I was using iphone11 iOS14.6, to replay this issue. May I ask why frame drops occur in this case? Is there any configuration or API usage change that could help fix the frame drop issue? Many thanks!

Hello, Environment macOS 15.6.1 / Xcode 26 beta 7 / iOS 26 Beta 9 In a simple AVFoundation video-playback sample, I’m seeing different behavior between iOS 18 and iOS 26 regarding AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification. I’ve attached a minimal sample below. Please replace videoURL with a valid short video URL. Repro steps Tap “Play” to start playback and let the video finish. The AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification registered with NotificationCenter should fire, and you should see Play finished. in the console. Without relaunching, tap “Play” again. This is where the issue arises. Observed behavior On iOS 18 and earlier: The video does not play again (it does not restart from the beginning), but AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification is posted and Play finished. appears in the console. The same happens every time you press “Play”. On iOS 26: Pressing “Play” does not post AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification. The code path that prints Play finished. is never called (the callback enclosing that line is not invoked again). Building the same program with Xcode 16.4 and running it on an iOS 26 beta device shows the same phenomenon, which suggests there has been a behavioral change for AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification on iOS 26. I couldn’t find any mention of this in the release notes or API Reference. Because the semantics around AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification appear to differ, we’re forced to adjust our logic. If there is a way to achieve the iOS 18–style behavior on iOS 26, I would appreciate guidance. Alternatively, if this change is intentional, could you share the reasoning? Is iOS 26 the correct behavior from Apple’s perspective and iOS 18 (and earlier) behavior considered incorrect? Any official clarification would be extremely helpful. import UIKit import AVFoundation final class ViewController: UIViewController { private let videoURL = URL(string: "https://......mp4")! private var player: AVPlayer? private var playerItem: AVPlayerItem? private var playerLayer: AVPlayerLayer? private var observeForComplete: NSObjectProtocol? // UI private let playerContainerView = UIView() private let playButton = UIButton(type: .system) private let stopButton = UIButton(type: .system) private let replayButton = UIButton(type: .system) deinit { if let observeForComplete { NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observeForComplete) } } override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() view.backgroundColor = .systemBackground setupUI() setupPlayer() } override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() { super.viewDidLayoutSubviews() playerLayer?.frame = playerContainerView.bounds } // MARK: - Setup private func setupUI() { playerContainerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false playerContainerView.backgroundColor = .black view.addSubview(playerContainerView) // Buttons playButton.setTitle("Play", for: .normal) stopButton.setTitle("Pause", for: .normal) replayButton.setTitle("RePlay", for: .normal) [playButton, stopButton, replayButton].forEach { $0.titleLabel?.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 16, weight: .semibold) $0.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false $0.contentEdgeInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 10, left: 16, bottom: 10, right: 16) } let stack = UIStackView(arrangedSubviews: [playButton, stopButton, replayButton]) stack.axis = .horizontal stack.spacing = 16 stack.alignment = .center stack.distribution = .equalCentering stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false view.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ playerContainerView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor, constant: 20), playerContainerView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor), playerContainerView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor), playerContainerView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 200), stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: playerContainerView.bottomAnchor, constant: 20), stack.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor) ]) // Action playButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapPlay), for: .touchUpInside) stopButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapStop), for: .touchUpInside) replayButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapReplayFromStart), for: .touchUpInside) } private func setupPlayer() { // AVURLAsset -> AVPlayerItem → AVPlayer let asset = AVURLAsset(url: videoURL) let item = AVPlayerItem(asset: asset) self.playerItem = item let player = AVPlayer(playerItem: item) player.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = true self.player = player let layer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player) layer.videoGravity = .resizeAspect playerContainerView.layer.addSublayer(layer) layer.frame = playerContainerView.bounds self.playerLayer = layer // Notification if let observeForComplete { NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observeForComplete) } if let playerItem { observeForComplete = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver( forName: AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification, object: playerItem, queue: .main ) { [weak self] _ in guard self != nil else { return } Task { @MainActor in print("Play finished.") } } } } // MARK: - Actions @objc private func didTapPlay() { player?.play() } @objc private func didTapStop() { player?.pause() } // RePlay @objc private func didTapReplayFromStart() { player?.seek(to: .zero, toleranceBefore: .zero, toleranceAfter: .zero) { [weak self] _ in self?.player?.play() } } } I would greatly appreciate an official response from Apple engineering on whether this is an intentional change, a regression, or an API contract clarification, and what the recommended approach is going forward. Thank you.

(This only started happening as of Xcode 26.) I know macOS and watchOS don't support this property, but all other platforms do (did?) up until I upgraded Xcode. Now when I compile I get this: Value of type 'AVPlayerItem' has no member 'externalMetadata'

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a definitive clarification on how to completely disable all video stabilization, including the hardware OIS, using AVFoundation. The goal is to achieve a completely raw, unstabilized video feed, which is crucial when using external equipment like gimbals to avoid conflicting stabilization motions. My research points to using the AVCaptureConnection property preferredVideoStabilizationMode and setting it to AVCaptureVideoStabilizationMode.off. The documentation for the .off case states: A mode that doesn’t stabilize video capture. This description is slightly ambiguous. It's unclear whether this only affects software-level stabilization (EIS, EIS+OIS, etc) or if it guarantees the complete deactivation of the physical OIS module. For professional video applications, this is a critical distinction. So, I'd like to ask the community: Has anyone been able to definitively confirm that setting preferredVideoStabilizationMode to .off also disables the hardware OIS? Are there any known tests or documentation that prove this behavior? Is there an alternative or more direct method to ensure the OIS module is physically inactive during video capture? What is the community's best practice for ensuring absolutely no stabilization is applied to the video pipeline? Any insights or shared experiences on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I had no luck to compile a sample code provided by apple with Xcode 16.0 beta 5. ScreenCaptureKit demo (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/screencapturekit/capturing_screen_content_in_macos) The part it is failling is, streamOutput.capturedFrameHandler = { continuation.yield($0) } And the error message is Sending '$0' risks causing data races Task-isolated '$0' is passed as a 'sending' parameter; Uses in callee may race with later task-isolated uses Please enlighten me why this is an issue and how to avoid? Thanks in advance!

My App is live on app store , user are using it with iPhone 16 pro max and they are getting Operation Stopped while combining videos and audios only specifically on iPhone 16 pro max , on every other device its working fine. And When i adding AVAssetExportPresetPassthrough it able to combine videos and audios but not respecting the encoding and without audio. NSArray *compatiblePresets = [AVAssetExportSession exportPresetsCompatibleWithAsset:composition]; if ([compatiblePresets containsObject:AVAssetExportPresetHighestQuality]) { presetName = AVAssetExportPresetHighestQuality; } else if ([compatiblePresets containsObject:AVAssetExportPreset1920x1080]) { presetName = AVAssetExportPreset1920x1080; } else if ([compatiblePresets containsObject:AVAssetExportPreset1280x720]) { presetName = AVAssetExportPreset1280x720; } else { presetName = AVAssetExportPresetPassthrough; } } else { presetName = AVAssetExportPreset1280x720; }