[Due for payment 2026-03-04] [$250] iOS - Chat / DM video - Video pauses after seeking and resumes unexpectedly

[lanitochka17]

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Version Number: 9.3.16-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #81732
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): applausetester+ap3@applause.expensifail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Pull Request QA execution
Device used: IPhone 11 /IOS 26.1
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

1.Go to Inbox tab and open any DM chat
2.Add a video attachment and send it
3.Play the video
4.Verify that play, pause, volume and progress bar controls work correctly

Expected Result:

Video continues playing after seeking, consistent with Web behavior.

Actual Result:

Video pauses after seeking using the progress bar.

Video does not resume automatically.

Opening the three-dot menu unexpectedly resumes playback, indicating incorrect player state handli

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7073509_1770724538255.WhatsApp_Video_2026-02-10_at_8.50.26_AM.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @greg-schroeder

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022021279444091905202
• Upwork Job ID: 2021279444091905202
• Last Price Increase: 2026-02-17

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @hungvu193 (External)

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @greg-schroeder (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022021279444091905202

[imgyf]

Proposal for #82018 - iOS Video Pause After Seeking

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

When playing a video in a DM on iOS, seeking using the progress bar causes the video to pause but it does not resume automatically when the seek completes. Additionally, opening the three-dot menu unexpectedly resumes playback, indicating incorrect player state handling.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The root cause is in src/components/VideoPlayer/VideoPlayerControls/ProgressBar/index.tsx. The ProgressBar uses checkIfVideoIsPlaying() from PlaybackContext to capture the playing state before pausing for seek:

.onBegin((event) => {
    setIsSliderPressed(true);
    checkIfVideoIsPlaying(onCheckIfVideoIsPlaying);  // Captures playing state
    pauseVideo();
    progressBarInteraction(event);
})
.onFinalize(() => {
    setIsSliderPressed(false);
    if (!wasVideoPlayingOnCheck.get()) {  // Should resume if was playing
        return;
    }
    playVideo();
});

The checkIfVideoIsPlaying() function reads from currentVideoPlayerRef.current?.playing in usePlaybackContextVideoRefs.ts:

const checkIfVideoIsPlaying = useCallback(
    (statusCallback) => statusCallback(currentVideoPlayerRef.current?.playing ?? false),
    [currentVideoPlayerRef],
);

On iOS with expo-video, the playing property state is not reliably synchronized at the exact moment of the check. By the time checkIfVideoIsPlaying executes its callback, the internal player state may already reflect a transitional state (especially with gesture handler timing), causing wasVideoPlayingOnCheck to be set to false when the video was actually playing.

The three-dot menu resuming playback is a separate symptom - when shareVideoPlayerElements() is called in BaseVideoPlayer.tsx, it has an auto-play trigger: if (!shouldNotAutoPlay) { video.play(); } that can fire on state changes.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Pass the current playing state directly to ProgressBar as a prop from VideoPlayerControls, which has synchronous access to the player ref. This avoids the context indirection and timing issues.

In src/components/VideoPlayer/VideoPlayerControls/index.tsx:

• Add isPlaying prop when rendering ProgressBar (VideoPlayerControls already receives videoPlayerRef as a prop)

In src/components/VideoPlayer/VideoPlayerControls/ProgressBar/index.tsx:

• Add isPlaying prop to ProgressBarProps
• In onBegin, use the passed isPlaying value directly instead of calling checkIfVideoIsPlaying()
• Store this in wasVideoPlayingOnCheck for use in onFinalize

This ensures the playing state is captured at render time (when the component has the correct state) rather than at gesture-begin time (when iOS expo-video state may be transitional).

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

1. Using a ref to store playing state updated via playingChange event listener - adds complexity and still has timing window
2. Adding a delay before checking playing state - unreliable and adds latency to seek UX
3. Always resuming after seek regardless of previous state - changes expected behavior for users who pause then seek

[Uzaifm127]

🚨 Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2026-02-18 13:56:33 UTC.

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

In IOS, seeking the progress bar pause the playing video and clicking on three dots menu play the paused video.

What is the root cause of that problem?

1. The root cause for progress bar seeking issue lies inside src/components/VideoPlayer/VideoPlayerControls/ProgressBar/index.tsx.
   
   In ProgressBar component, we have onBegin and onFinalize callback. onBegin is responsible for pausing the video when interacting with progress bar while onFinalize is for playing the video when we release the progress bar.
   
   In iOS, when we interact the progress bar for a very short time (like touching or tapping it to specific timeline quickly) then onFinalize isn't being called, so the video is kept paused and doesn't played.
   
   onFinalize isn't being called because, in iOS, by default, the Pan gesture waits for the finger to move a minimum distance (a few pixels) before it fully transitions to the ACTIVE state.
   
   More technically:
   
   The react-native-gesture-handler's pan gesture maps directly to iOS's native UIPanGestureRecognizer, which has a built-in minimumTranslationThreshold. When we tap quickly without moving our finger, the gesture never crosses that threshold.
   
   onFinalize only fires when the gesture reaches the ACTIVE state first. On a quick tap, the gesture goes directly from BEGAN to FAILED without ever activating, so the onFinalize callback is never triggered.
   
   

   App/src/components/VideoPlayer/VideoPlayerControls/ProgressBar/index.tsx

   Lines 47 to 64 in 119e4f7

   	const pan = Gesture.Pan()
   	.runOnJS(true)
   	.onBegin((event) => {
   	setIsSliderPressed(true);
   	checkIfVideoIsPlaying(onCheckIfVideoIsPlaying);
   	pauseVideo();
   	progressBarInteraction(event);
   	})
   	.onChange((event) => {
   	progressBarInteraction(event);
   	})
   	.onFinalize(() => {
   	setIsSliderPressed(false);
   	if (!wasVideoPlayingOnCheck.get()) {
   	return;
   	}
   	playVideo();
   	});

2. The root cause for three dots playing the video lies inside src/components/VideoPlayer/BaseVideoPlayer.tsx and src/components/VideoPlayerContexts/VideoPopoverMenuContext.tsx.
   
   The showPopoverMenu function calls updatePlaybackSpeed(videoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate) to sync the playback speed state for the popover menu UI.

   App/src/components/VideoPlayer/BaseVideoPlayer.tsx

   Line 227 in 119e4f7

   updatePlaybackSpeed(videoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate as PlaybackSpeed);

   
   And insideupdatePlaybackSpeed, we assignvideoPopoverMenuPlayerRef.current.playbackRate = speed. On iOS,expo-video wraps AVPlayer, where setting rate to any non-zero value (e.g., 1) is equivalent to calling play(). So even though the speed hasn't changed, the redundant assignment of playbackRate = 1 on a paused player causes iOS to resume playback.

   App/src/components/VideoPlayerContexts/VideoPopoverMenuContext.tsx

   Line 32 in 119e4f7

   videoPopoverMenuPlayerRef.current.playbackRate = speed;

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

1. Make the Pan activate with minimal movement:

We need to add .minDistance(0) and activateAfterLongPress(0) in between .runOnJS(true)and onBegin on gesture pan which makes the Pan activate with minimal movement, which forces IOS to keep it alive even on taps.

const pan = Gesture.Pan()
    .runOnJS(true)
    .minDistance(0)               // Add this
    .activateAfterLongPress(0)    // Add this
    .onBegin(...)
    .onChange(...)
    .onFinalize(...);

App/src/components/VideoPlayer/VideoPlayerControls/ProgressBar/index.tsx

Lines 47 to 64 in 119e4f7

	const pan = Gesture.Pan()
	.runOnJS(true)
	.onBegin((event) => {
	setIsSliderPressed(true);
	checkIfVideoIsPlaying(onCheckIfVideoIsPlaying);
	pauseVideo();
	progressBarInteraction(event);
	})
	.onChange((event) => {
	progressBarInteraction(event);
	})
	.onFinalize(() => {
	setIsSliderPressed(false);
	if (!wasVideoPlayingOnCheck.get()) {
	return;
	}
	playVideo();
	});

2. Guard playbackRate assignment against redundant writes:

In updatePlaybackSpeed function, add a check before the following:

App/src/components/VideoPlayerContexts/VideoPopoverMenuContext.tsx

Line 32 in 119e4f7

videoPopoverMenuPlayerRef.current.playbackRate = speed;

to skip the playbackRate assignment if the value hasn't actually changed.

const updatePlaybackSpeed = useCallback(
    (speed: PlaybackSpeed) => {
        setCurrentPlaybackSpeed(speed);
        if (!videoPopoverMenuPlayerRef.current) {
            return;
        }
        // Add this check here
        if (videoPopoverMenuPlayerRef.current.playbackRate === speed) {
            return;
        }
        videoPopoverMenuPlayerRef.current.playbackRate = speed;
    },
    [videoPopoverMenuPlayerRef],
);

Demo:

Screen.Recording.2026-02-18.at.7.mp4

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

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[melvin-bot]

@hungvu193 Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!