Accessibility leads our latest release with improved VoiceOver descriptions and better UI adaptation for large text sizes. Additionally, we've resolved issues with displaying images and descriptions on the lock screen, accurate ad positioning within JWP VAST, scrub bar presence for live content, and cross-device caption display. 

New Features

• More precise descriptions enable the device's VoiceOver feature to describe the UX to users clearly.
• The position and duration labels are resized appropriately for large text sizes. When constrained by space, only the position label displays.

Bug Fixes

• Poster images and item descriptions now display on the lock screen command center.
• In the JWP VAST client, the ad pod displays the proper ad position in the pod.
• Live content no longer shows a scrub bar on the lock screen command center.
• Improved resizing logic ensures that captions appear correctly on all devices.

With our latest iOS SDK release, you can create configurations from JSON objects. We've also made user experience improvements related to the language menu, audio-only content controls, and casting playback. And lastly, we have addressed several ads, captions, and playback issues.

New releases

• The JWPlayerConfigurationBuilder() enables creating a configuration from a JSON object.
• Two new intuitive aliases replace the JSONPayload alias: JSONObject for [String : AnyObject] and JSONArray for [Any].
• The languages menu dynamically chooses and displays the Audio, Captions, or Audio & Captions menu based on options available to the user.
• For audio-only content, developers can now define the fading behavior of the onscreen controls through the interfaceBehavior property of the JWPlayerViewController. By default, the controls will fade, similar to the behavior with video content.
• Whether through AirPlay or Chromecast devices, video playback screen maintains the same look and style.

Bug Fixes

• Volume on IMA ads maintains consistent levels even when set during the ad.
• Playback no longer crashes when the video is in the background.
• VAST ads now play during DRM-protected content without causing player errors.
• Caption display behavior continues as expected after exiting Picture in Picture mode.

In this update, we've resolved issues with the adSchedule event, app crashes on iOS 16, caption rendering, and ads during protected content playback. Additionally, we have enhanced the Chromecast UX.

Bug Fixes

• The adSchedule event now surfaces when using any VMAP format.
• On iOS 16, the player no longer causes the app to crash while utilizing Picture-in-Picture.
• The caption renderer now fully uses the system caption style size.
• The player now allows ads to run while playing protected content.
• Several UI issues have been addressed to improve the Chromecast user experience.

Attention developers! We're excited to announce a set of key fixes to the iOS SDK, ensuring a smoother and more reliable user experience.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved a glitch that caused JWPlayer.stop() to be ignored during ad playback.
• Addressed a rare crash occurring when switching between player items with captions.
• Fixed an issue that triggered a warning message during app uploads to TestFlight.

Deprecations

In light of Apple's announcement that a future Xcode release will eliminate the ability to build with bitcode and that IPAs containing bitcode will have it stripped prior to App Store submission, we have opted to discontinue bitcode support.

With 4.10.1, we have released new updates to improve error reporting for side-loaded captions, fix ad issues, and address a rare Chromecast-related crash.

New Feature

• Improved error and warning reporting for side-loaded captions.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where VAST ads generating an error caused a video to pause on the first frame.
• Fixed an issue where calling JWPlayer.play(ad:client:) was not loading the supplied ad.
• Fixed rare crash when loading playlists during casting to a Chromecast device.
• Fixed an issue where replaying a video with preroll ads was firing an additional pause event.

Discover the latest updates in the JWP iOS SDK 4.10.0. This release includes new features such as IMA ad companions and side-loaded captions enhancements, along with UI customizations. Additionally, improvements have been made to performance and error reporting.

New Features

 Google IMA

• Added support for IMA ad companions.
• Added support for additional IMA settings via JWIMASettings config.

Captions

• The default position of captions can be set via JWCaptionStyle.
• Side-loaded WebVTT captions are displayed when casting to Chromecast devices.
• A locale can be specified for side-loaded captions tracks using JWCaptionTrackBuilder.
• Improved error and warning reporting for side-loaded caption issues.

User Interface

• Added setVisibility API to JWPlayerObjcViewController to allow a developer using Obj-C to change the visibility of interface elements.
• Added ability to customer the color of ad cues and chapter cues displayed in the scrub bar, using JWPlayerSkin.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug were no tracks were selected when CC+SDH was enabled in the user’s devices settings.
• Improved performance and handling of potential hangs during playback.
• Fixed issue where errors pings were not being reported.
• Fixed issue with LLDB reporting.

With the release of iOS SDK 4.9.1, various fixes have been deployed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the player UI became unresponsive after getting the app back from background or after closing the PiP window.
• Fixed the issue where the player was not displaying the default caption label when a single caption track is provided.
• Fixed issues with caption alignment, height, and extra lines.
• Fixed an issue where the currentCaptionsTrack API was returning an unexpected index.
• Fixed an issue where the player would close unexpectedly while being used in a UITableView.
• Fixed an issue where GoogleIMA ads caused unexpected behavior when the user device is behind an ad blocker mechanism.
• Fixed an issue where the player UI became unresponsive while the device had no internet connection.
• Fixed an issue where ad tag macros were not replaced while using the GoogleIMA ad client.
• Fixed an issue where the replay button was not working.

JWP introduces offline DRM playback to the iOS SDK. Support for iOS 10 & iOS 11 has been deprecated. Additionally, various player fixes have been deployed.

New Feature

• Support has been added for offline DRM playback.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where player would freeze when entering app switcher.
• Fixed issue where player would freeze when audio session was interrupted.
• Fixed issue where player would become unresponsive after encountering a fatal ad error.
• Fixed issue where player would hang indefinitely when configured with VAST ads and OMID tracking.
• Fixed issue where calling stop while during DRM playback would throw an error.
• Fixed issue where clock and scrub bar do not advance during DRM playback.

Deprecation

• Support for iOS 10 and iOS 11 has been deprecated.

Developers who write in Objective-C can programmatically make the JWPlayerView full screen or dismiss full screen. Also in iOS 4.8.0, we make some captions improvements and released several fixes.

New Features

• A new API has been added to the JWPlayerObjCViewController allowing developers who write in Objective-C to programmatically make the JWPlayerView full screen or dismiss full screen.
• JWPlayer.loadPlaylist has been improved to accept a URL pointing to a playlist on the JWP Dashboard.
• The size of captions now scale with the height of the JWPlayerView.
• Caption position responds more accurately and reliably to resizing of the JWPlayerView.

Bug Fixes

• Memory footprint during JW VAST ad playback has been optimized and improved.
• Layout constraint errors and warnings have been fixed in the Playlist / Recommendation menu.

With the release of v4.7.1, we have fixed several bugs.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Apple’s supplied caption styles were not being rendered as expected.
• Fixed an issue where the player was not able to play local MP4 files when the internet connection is lost.
• Fixed an issue where the audio track selection wasn’t working as expected.