Version 4.0.0 now requires Android SDK 26 or higher to use ExoPlayer. This is the default version as of React Native 0.56 and will be required by Google for all apps in October 2018.
Version 4.0.0 changes some behaviors and may require updates to your Gradle files. See [Updating](#updating) for details.
Version 4.0.0 now requires Android SDK 26+ and Gradle 3 plugin in order to support ExoPlayer 2.9.0. Google is dropping support for apps using SDKs older than 26 as of October 2018 and Gradle 2 as of January 2019. React Native 0.57 defaults to Gradle 3 & SDK 27.
If you need to support an older React Native version, you should use react-native-video 3.2.1.
### Version 3.0.0 breaking changes
Version 3.0 features a number of changes to existing behavior. See [Updating](#updating) for changes.
@@ -974,7 +980,35 @@ To enable audio to play in background on iOS the audio session needs to be set t
## Updating
### Version 3.0
### Version 4.0.0
#### Gradle 3 and SDK 26 requirement
In order to support ExoPlayer 2.9.0, you must use version 3 or higher of the Gradle plugin. This is included by default in React Native 0.57. ExoPlayer
#### ExoPlayer 2.9.0 Java 1.8 requirement
ExoPlayer 2.9.0 uses some Java 1.8 features, so you may need to enable support for Java 1.8 in your app/build.gradle file. If you get an error, compiling with ExoPlayer like:
`Default interface methods are only supported starting with Android N (--min-api 24)`
Add the following to your app/build.gradle file:
```
android {
... // Various other settings go here
compileOptions {
targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}
}
```
#### ExoPlayer no longer detaches
When using a router like the react-navigation TabNavigator, switching between tab routes would previously cause ExoPlayer to detach causing the video player to pause. We now don't detach the view, allowing the video to continue playing in a background tab. This matches the behavior for iOS. Android MediaPlayer will crash if it detaches when switching routes, so its behavior has not been changed.
#### useTextureView now defaults to true
The SurfaceView, which ExoPlayer has been using by default has a number of quirks that people are unaware of and often cause issues. This includes not supporting animations or scaling. It also causes strange behavior if you overlay two videos on top of each other, because the SurfaceView will [punch a hole](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/SurfaceView) through other views. Since TextureView doesn't have these issues and behaves in the way most developers expect, it makes sense to make it the default.
TextureView is not as fast as SurfaceView, so you may still want to enable SurfaceView support. To do this, you can set `useTextureView={false}`.
### Version 3.0.0
#### All platforms now auto-play
Previously, on Android ExoPlayer if the paused prop was not set, the media would not automatically start playing. The only way it would work was if you set `paused={false}`. This has been changed to automatically play if paused is not set so that the behavior is consistent across platforms.
