No WebView required, with native YouTube Player API for Android

DEC 21, 2012

By Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

This post is abridged and cross-posted from the YouTube API Blog.

Adding a high-quality video experience to your Android application just got a whole lot easier. Starting today, you can embed and play YouTube videos in your app using the new YouTube Android Player API.

The API, which was pre-announced at Google I/O 2012, offers these benefits:

High-quality video playback supported on Android 2.2 (Froyo) or newer.
Easy integration with your Android application (no WebView required).
Fullscreen and orientation change support.
Closed captions display.
Support for YouTube ads.
Programmatic access, similar to existing Player APIs, to most aspects of the YouTube video playback experience.
Integration with the Android YouTube app using a standard set of YouTube Intents.

We are launching the API as experimental, although we do not expect major interface changes going forward.

The only limit now is your imagination (and ToS)

These instructions explain how to include the API client library in your Android application. The library is supported on Android devices running version 4.2.16 or newer of the Android YouTube app. By including the library in your project, you can create rich video playback experiences through the ability to control and customize the video player. Flipboard, shown below, is a good example. See the full post for more cool app examples.

Flipboard

Learn more

If you would like to learn more about the YouTube Android Player API, read the full post on The YouTube API Blog. The post features several companies already using the API and contains useful links to source code examples and documentation. Alternatively, get started by watching some of the videos from our YouTube Android Player API playlist.

Scott Knaster is the Editor of Google Developers Blog. His programming books have been translated into several languages, including Japanese and Pascal.