Native Player Integration

The BB Channel SwiftUI SDK uses BBNativePlayerKit for native video playback. This provides smooth, hardware-accelerated playback with full Chromecast support.

BBChannelWithPlayerView

BBChannelWithPlayerView is the recommended way to integrate channels with native video. It provides:

• Native inline player on detail pages
• Back arrow navigation header
• Player reuse across page transitions (no re-creation overhead)
• Playlist auto-advance
• Modal player for main page video playback
• Chromecast support

import SwiftUI
import BBChannelSwiftUI
import BBNativePlayerKit_SwiftUI

struct ChannelScreen: View {
    @StateObject private var playerVM = BBChannelWithPlayerViewModel()

    var body: some View {
        BBChannelWithPlayerView(
            channelUrl: "https://yourdomain.bbvms.com/ch/123.json",
            viewModel: playerVM,
            callbacks: BBChannelCallbacks(
                onReady: { print("Channel loaded") }
            )
        )
    }
}

Installation

Add both packages via Swift Package Manager:

.product(name: "BBChannelSwiftUI", package: "channel-sdks"),
.product(name: "BBNativePlayerKit-SwiftUI", package: "bbnativeplayerkit-swift"),

Info.plist Configuration (Required)

Add the following keys to your Info.plist for Chromecast device discovery:

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses Bluetooth for casting video to external devices.</string>
<key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses Bluetooth for casting video to external devices.</string>
<key>NSBonjourServices</key>
<array>
    <string>_googlecast._tcp</string>
    <string>_1F61A3A5._googlecast._tcp</string>
</array>
<key>NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses the local network to discover Cast devices.</string>

warning

These entries are required. Without them, Cast device discovery causes excessive CPU usage and battery drain.

Configuration

Property	Type	Default	Description
showBackArrow	Bool	true	Show back arrow header above player on detail pages
playerAspectRatio	CGFloat	16/9	Aspect ratio for the inline player

Custom Player Handling (Advanced)

For full control over the player lifecycle, use BBChannelView directly and handle onMediaPlay events yourself:

BBChannelView(
    channelUrl: "https://yourdomain.bbvms.com/ch/123.json",
    viewModel: viewModel,
    callbacks: BBChannelCallbacks(
        onMediaPlay: { media in
            // Create and manage native player manually
        }
    )
)

Example App

A full working example is available at github.com/bluebillywig/channel-examples/swiftui.