How to make a AVPlayerViewController go to fullscreen programmatically?

Question

I'm trying to make a AVPlayerViewController go to full screen mode programmatically, coming from "embedded" mode, however this does not appear to be possible with the published API.

Is there a workaround that I'm missing? I'm interested in obtaining the same animation to the one that you get when the user presses the full screen button on the bottom right of the controls.

Using MPMoviePlayerController is not a viable alternative since I might have more than one video playing at a time.

Thanks.

Answer 1

AVPlayerViewController is a subclass of UIViewController, so it is presentable like any other view controller subclass. Are you able to use presentViewController:animated:completion?

self.avPlayerController.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationOverFullScreen;
[self presentViewController:self.avPlayerController animated:YES completion:nil];

This then shows the "Done" button in the top left-hand corner.

Answer 2

Updated for iOS 11

There is no supported way to programmatically go fullscreen with AVPlayerViewController (a bit of an oversight in my opinion).

However, AVPlayerViewController does contain a private method that does exactly that. You'll have to decide for yourself whether you'd want to use it or not given you're not supposed to call private methods.

AVPlayerViewController+Fullscreen.h

#import <AVKit/AVKit.h>

@interface AVPlayerViewController (Fullscreen)

-(void)goFullscreen;

@end

AVPlayerViewController+Fullscreen.m

#import "AVPlayerViewController+Fullscreen.h"

@implementation AVPlayerViewController (Fullscreen)

-(void)goFullscreen {
    NSString *selectorForFullscreen = @"transitionToFullScreenViewControllerAnimated:completionHandler:";
    if (@available(iOS 11.3, *)) {
        selectorForFullscreen = @"transitionToFullScreenAnimated:interactive:completionHandler:";
    } else if (@available(iOS 11.0, *)) {
        selectorForFullscreen = @"transitionToFullScreenAnimated:completionHandler:";
    }
    SEL fsSelector = NSSelectorFromString([@"_" stringByAppendingString:selectorForFullscreen]);
    if ([self respondsToSelector:fsSelector]) {
        NSInvocation *inv = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:[self methodSignatureForSelector:fsSelector]];
        [inv setSelector:fsSelector];
        [inv setTarget:self];

        NSInteger index = 2; //arguments 0 and 1 are self and _cmd respectively, automatically set
        BOOL animated = YES;
        [inv setArgument:&(animated) atIndex:index];
        index++;

        if (@available(iOS 11.3, *)) {
            BOOL interactive = YES;
            [inv setArgument:&(interactive) atIndex:index]; //arguments 0 and 1 are self and _cmd respectively, automatically set by NSInvocation
            index++;
        }

        id completionBlock = nil;
        [inv setArgument:&(completionBlock) atIndex:index];
        [inv invoke];
    }
}

@end

Answer 3

UPDATE: Swift 4 version of ToddH's answer:

private func enterFullscreen(playerViewController: AVPlayerViewController) {

    let selectorName: String = {
        if #available(iOS 11.3, *) {
            return "_transitionToFullScreenAnimated:interactive:completionHandler:"
        } else if #available(iOS 11, *) {
            return "_transitionToFullScreenAnimated:completionHandler:"
        } else {
            return "_transitionToFullScreenViewControllerAnimated:completionHandler:"
        }
    }()
    let selectorToForceFullScreenMode = NSSelectorFromString(selectorName)

    if playerViewController.responds(to: selectorToForceFullScreenMode) {
        playerViewController.perform(selectorToForceFullScreenMode, with: true, with: nil)
    }
}