With the latest release of WP YouTube Lyte I fixed a problem where iOS users had to click twice to view a LYTE-embedded video; once to activate the iOS YouTube player and once to start the actual playing. On Android that problem does not exist, as LYTE embeds can be played inline in the browser.
Based on my own tests however, performance and quality aren’t always optimal when compared to the experience the native YouTube app provides. So now I’m wondering; wouldn’t it be better to not only detect iOS, but also Android and have both of them play in their respective a native players, even if on Android this isn’t an absolute requirement?
Advantages:
- better video playback performance/ quality
- somehow feels more professional (it’s the way the YouTube mobile site seems to work as well for example)
Disadvantages:
- you force visitors out of the context of your webpage
- a small percentage of Android visitors will get an ugly error message as they do not have a native YouTube player
- only works for single video’s, not for playlists (or at least so it seems) and the audio-only trick obviously won’t work either
What do you think? Speak now or be silent forever!
And let me throw in a vid (Spiritualized with “Hey Jane” live) just for the heck of it;
And if you’re on Android you can click here to trigger the YouTube app to see the exact same thing.