Hide controls in AVPlayerViewController -- only at start

Question

If you set AVPlayerViewController.showsPlaybackControls to false, the controls will not show at all. Even if you tap the screen.

I want the controls to start out hidden, but still be able to summon them by tapping. If I set the mentioned property to true, they start out visible. (Yes they fade after a few seconds.) Is there a way to start hidden, but still be accessible?

Answer 1

UPDATE: I ended up making my own controls for better customization. It's more difficult but worth the time. Please read Apple's sample code for reference. It's about implementing PiP but also about making custom controls: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/samplecode/AVFoundationPiPPlayer/Introduction/Intro.html

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UPDATE: When tapped, AVPlayerViewController only fires touchesBegan event, and not touchesEnded event. But it's enough to show the controls.

First you need to hide the control. Put this code right before you present AVPlayerViewController

YourAVPlayerViewController.showsPlaybackControls = false

Then subclass AVPlayerViewController and add this function:

override func touchesBegan(touches: Set<UITouch>, withEvent event: UIEvent?) {

    self.showsPlaybackControls = true

    super.touchesBegan(touches, withEvent: event)
}

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OLD SOLLUTION:

I've just solved this. The main idea is to put a UIView on top of the AVPlayerViewController to reveive tap gesture, and hide that UIView when it is no longer needed.

Here's the code:

import AVKit
import UIKit

// Create a custom AVPlayerViewController
@available(iOS 8.0, *)
final class CustomAVPlayerViewController: AVPlayerViewController {

    // Create a UIView to put on top of all
    lazy var topView = UIView(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height))

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // For sure, set it to clearcolor
        // (DON'T set alpha = 0 because it will stop receiving user interaction)
        topView.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor()

        // Add it to the view of AVPlayerViewController
        self.view.addSubview(topView)

        // Bring it to front
        self.view.bringSubviewToFront(topView)

        // Add a tap gesture recognizer
        topView.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "handleTap"))
    }

    // Handle the tap
    func handleTap() {

        // Show the control
        self.showsPlaybackControls = true

        // Hide the topView. You can unhide it when needed later.
        self.topView.hidden = true
    }
}

And when you need to hide the controls, do this:

var AVViewController = CustomAVPlayerViewController()

...

// Hide controls
AVViewController.showsPlaybackControls = false
// Show topView
AVViewController.topView.hidden = false