AVKit

High-level media playback UI built on AVFoundation. Provides system-standard video players, Picture-in-Picture, AirPlay routing, transport controls, and subtitle/caption display. Targets Swift 6.3 / iOS 26+.

Contents

• Setup
• AVPlayerViewController
• SwiftUI VideoPlayer
• Picture-in-Picture
• AirPlay
• Transport Controls and Playback Speed
• Subtitles and Closed Captions
• Common Mistakes
• Review Checklist
• References

Setup

Audio Session Configuration

Playback apps need an audio session category and the matching background mode when they support background audio, AirPlay, or PiP.

1. Enable Background Modes > Audio, AirPlay, and Picture in Picture (the audio value in UIBackgroundModes)
2. Set the audio session category to .playback
3. Defer setActive(true) until playback begins so you do not interrupt other audio prematurely

import AVFoundation

func configureAudioSessionForPlayback() {
    let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
    do {
        try session.setCategory(.playback, mode: .moviePlayback)
    } catch {
        print("Audio session category failed: \(error)")
    }
}

func activateAudioSessionWhenPlaybackBegins() {
    do {
        try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
    } catch {
        print("Audio session activation failed: \(error)")
    }
}

Imports

import AVKit          // AVPlayerViewController, VideoPlayer, PiP
import AVFoundation   // AVPlayer, AVPlayerItem, AVAsset

AVPlayerViewController

AVPlayerViewController is the standard UIKit player. It provides system playback controls, PiP, AirPlay, subtitles, and frame analysis out of the box. Do not subclass it.

Basic Presentation (Full Screen)

import AVKit