TheWidlarzGroup/react-native-video

README

The most battle-tested open-source video player component for React Native with support for DRM, offline playback, HLS/DASH streaming, and more.

Important

This is a new version (v7) of react-native-video that is currently in active development. You can expect breaking changes and missing features.

If you have any questions, please contact us at hi@thewidlarzgroup.com.

🔍 Features

Feature	Status
📱 Plays all video formats natively supported by iOS/Android	✅ Available
▶️ Local and remote playback	✅ Available
🔁 Streaming: HLS • DASH • SmoothStreaming	✅ Available
🧩 Expo plugin support	✅ Available
📴 Offline playback, video download, support for side-tracks and side-captions (via optional SDK)	✅ Available
📱 Picture in Picture	✅ Available
🎚️ Fine-grained control over tracks, buffering & events	🏗️ In Development
🧠 Advanced control over playback and buffering	✅ Available
🔐 DRM: Widevine & FairPlay (See free DRM stream example)	✅ Available
🌐 Basic Web Support	✅ Available
📺 TV Support	📝 TODO
🥽 VisionOS Support	📝 TODO

✨ Project Status

Version	State	Architecture
v5 and lower	❌ End-of-life Commercial Support Available	Old Architecture
v6	🛠 Maintained (community + TWG)	Old + New (Interop Layer)
v7	🚀 Active Development	Old + New (Full Support)

react-native-video v7 introduces full support for the new React Native architecture, unlocking better performance, improved consistency, and modern native modules.

📚 Documentation & Examples

📖 Documentation
🤖 AI agent skill — use react-native-video correctly with AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex); install with npx skills add TheWidlarzGroup/react-native-video
📦 Example: Basic Usage
📦 Example: Free DRM Stream

🚀 Quick Start

Requirements

React Native 0.75 or higher
react-native-nitro-modules (>=0.31.10) - Please see nitro requirements

Install

react-native-video requires react-native-nitro-modules (>=0.31.10) in your project.

npm install react-native-nitro-modules

Then install react-native-video

# Install the beta version of react-native-video v7
npm install react-native-video@beta

# Install pods
cd ios && pod install

For react-native < 0.80 `react-native` < 0.80 have bug that prevents to properly handle errors by nitro modules on Android. We highly recommend to apply bellow patch for `react-native-nitro-modules` to fix this issue. You can apply it using `patch-package`.

Without this patch you won't be able "recognize" errors, all will be thrown as unknown errors.

see installation guide

Usage

import { useVideoPlayer, VideoView } from 'react-native-video';

export default () => (
  const player = useVideoPlayer(
    'https://www.w3schools.com/html/mov_bbb.mp4',
    (_player) => {
      _player.play();
    }
  );

  <VideoView
    player={player}
    style={{ width: '100%', aspectRatio: 16 / 9 }}
    controls
  />
);

📥 We're building a Pro Player!

We see the need for a more feature-rich video player. There is a gap between open source and commercial players, and we want to fill that gap with plugins.

Are you using a commercial player just for 1-2 features? Maybe you are paying for a license just to get Caching, Ads, or Analytics? Let us know. We want to identify these missing pieces and build them, so you can switch back to open source.

This is what we have already. Check out!

Offline Video: Logic for downloading streams (HLS/DASH) and standard video files to enable offline playback.
Background Uploader: Handles uploads even if the app is minimized (not strictly a player plugin, but super useful).
Chapter Markers: Visual markers on the timeline to navigate content.

-> Tell us what to build next ← or reach out to us sdk@thewidlarzgroup.com

💼 TWG Services & Products

Offering	Description
Professional Support Packages	Priority bug-fixes, guaranteed SLAs, roadmap influence
Issue Booster	Fast-track urgent fixes with a pay‑per‑issue model
Offline Video SDK	Plug‑and‑play secure download solution for iOS & Android
Integration Support	Hands‑on help integrating video, DRM & offline into your app
Free DRM Token Generator	Generate Widevine / FairPlay tokens for testing
Ready Boilerplates	Ready-to-use apps with offline HLS/DASH DRM, video frame scrubbing, TikTok-style video feed, background uploads, Skia-based frame processor (R&D phase), and more
React Native Video Upgrade Guide	Common upgrade pitfalls & how to solve them

See how TWG helped Learnn ship a world‑class player in record time - case study.

🌍 Social

🐦 X / Twitter - follow product & release updates
💬 Discord - talk to the community and us
💼 LinkedIn - see TWG flexing

📰 Community & Media

🗽 React Summit US – How TWG helped Learnn boost video performance on React Native.
Watch the talk »
🧨 v7 deep dive – Why we’re building v7 with Nitro Modules Watch on X »
🛠️ Well-maintained open-source library - What does it truly mean? - Bart's talk for React Native Warsaw Watch here »
📺 “Over the Top” Panel - Building Streaming Apps for Mobile, Web, and Smart TVs - Bart giving his insights on the industry Watch here »