An iOS Embeds UI update
Ever since the embed updates back in 2020, the mobile embed experience has been sub-par. The suggested way to embed on iOS was to embed on your website, then load the website in a web view in your app. This was so that we could pass along the parent
parameter. However it results in a number of issues that I'd like to suggest solutions for.
First, the issues:
The UI of the player is unusable. If you load your own website embed, then it is far too small to use. If you simply load the pop out player's URL, then the elements are too big and overlap each other and block UI elements from being useful.
Embedding in the way described above means that there are desktop controls (for example the keyboard shortcuts in the settings menu).
Web browsers mostly prevent starting a stream unmuted. This is true even in an iOS WKWebView.
Possible solutions:
A parameter like
mobile=true
or something similar to let the player know to lay itself out in a way that is mobile friendly.Twitch or the community (probably me) can create an SDK to allow embedding natively. It might be able to use an app or user access token for the Twitch API in replacement of the
parent
property on web.Twitch can expose a stream URL through the Twitch API, which can require an app or user access token. Stream URLs are very easily accessible anyways, it'd be nice to have a Twitch approved way to access them. This would allow us to create our own player, and the developer agreement could require things like follow/sub buttons be displayed alongside it.
These are just a few possible solutions. I know that Twitch wants to maintain a high level of quality for its users and developers, and this is a great opportunity to do so!
Feel free to hit me with any questions or poke holes in my solutions.
