Apple Should Mandate the Use of AVPlayer for all Video Apps
Enough already with 3rd party developers thinking they know better than Apple and creating their own (terrible) UI for Video Playback. Every Video-playback Application on my devices has a completely different UI, none of which are any good at all:
Netflix: garbage
Hulu: trash
StreamtoMe: from 2007
YouTube: from GOOGLE
etc. etc.
Apple's built-in Video Playback UI and corresponding APIs should be mandatory. The Video Playback experience should not change so radically from one app to another. Each of these Apps does tend to have some unique function/control that appears on the playback UI, but there is no reason Apple couldn't allow them to extend the function of AVPlayer to include those, as long as they are following the guidelines.
Not to mention AirPlay, and the up and coming Picture in Picture, should likewise be mandatory. These are key aspects of the OS experience, and they should not be optional for developers wanting to playball.
People have criticized Apple in the past for their enforcement and curation...I don't think there is anywhere near enough of it. They need to get tough and stop allowing iOS to look like Android, where nothing is the same from one App to the next. For certain things like the Video Player UI and core OS functions...this is what I want Apple for, and this is precisely what I don't want any 3rd party developers getting cute with.
Comments
In some regard, this is what AppleTV still has over the rest of iOS with their Apple-controlled UI across the board. Granted, that UI is stale and in need of refresh too, but at least it is the same across all apps.