v1.6.0

What's Changed

✨ Highlights

• New advertising prop: liftsVMAPLevelExtensions — lifts a VMAP-level <vmap:Extensions> block down into each <vmap:AdBreak> (e.g. for skippable extensions). VMAP-inline-only; ignored for remote VMAP URLs.
  • iOS: works on both modern and legacy config (wired in RNJWPlayerAds.configureVAST).
  • Android: works via the modern (default) config path; not available with forceLegacyConfig (the Android SDK exposes the setter only on VmapAdvertisingConfig).
• iOS JWPlayerKit → 4.26.2 and Android SDK → 4.25.2 (native fixes detailed below).

📦 Native SDK upgrades

iOS — JWPlayerKit 4.26.1 → 4.26.2 (#238)

• IMA viewability fixes — friendly obstructions, fullscreen refresh, and redirect cap
• Hardened end-of-media stall safety net
• Swift-side VMAP-level skippable extension injector (backs liftsVMAPLevelExtensions)

Android — JW SDK 4.25.1 → 4.25.2 (#239)

• Fix side-loaded captions not rendering on track switch
• Fix postroll adPosition incorrectly reporting as PRE
• Refresh background-audio notification on metadata change
• Android-side VMAP-level skippable extension injector (backs liftsVMAPLevelExtensions)

🔧 Bridge fixes

• fix(android): catch IllegalViewOperationException in getPlayerView by @Jmilham21 in #237
• fix(ios): present JWPlayerKit menus over host tab bar (#93) by @Jmilham21 in #236

🧱 Dependency & release

• chore: bump JWPlayerKit to 4.26.2 (iOS) by @Jmilham21 in #238
• chore: bump Android SDK to 4.25.2 + expose liftsVMAPLevelExtensions by @Jmilham21 in #239
• Release v1.6.0 by @Jmilham21 in #240

Full Changelog: v1.5.1...v1.6.0

v1.5.1

Highlights

This is a patch release that pulls in upstream native SDK bug fixes — no bridge API changes, so it's a drop-in upgrade from 1.5.0.

Native SDK Upgrades

iOS — JWPlayerKit 4.26.0 → 4.26.1 (changelog)

• Fixed intermittent AVPlayer crash when starting a Chromecast session
• Fixed Chromecast playlist progression breaking after the first item
• Fixed stuck "Playing on AirPlay" overlay after media swap
• Captions now always reload AVPlayerItem on content load (correct sideloaded captions on sequential playlist items)
• Fixed lock-screen artwork distortion for non-square posters
• Headless player JS upgraded to 8.48.1

Android — JW Player SDK 4.25.0 → 4.25.1 (changelog)

• Fixed Chromecast caption disable and on-screen icon state sync
• Fixed DAI "Learn More" click-through pause/resume in Picture-in-Picture
• Headless player JS upgraded to 8.48.1

Bridge / Packaging

• Added android/libs and ios/frameworks to .npmignore to keep local-dev binaries out of the published tarball (#231, corrected casing in #235)

What's Changed

• chore: bump JWPlayerKit to 4.26.1 (iOS) and JW SDK to 4.25.1 (Android) by @Jmilham21 in #234
• chore: add android/libs and ios/Frameworks to .npmignore by @Jmilham21 in #231
• Release v1.5.1 by @Jmilham21 in #235

Full Changelog: v1.5.0...v1.5.1

v1.5.0

Highlights

New playback API

• setPlaylistItemMetadata({ title, description, image }) updates the currently playing item's metadata without a reload, with a matching onPlaylistItemMetadataChanged event. Android also exposes a refreshNotification flag that cycles the foreground MediaService so the background-audio notification rebuilds with the new title/description. See #228.

Native SDK upgrades (#227)

• iOS: JWPlayerKit 4.25.2 → 4.26.0 — iOS changelog

  • Quality menu: filter out audio-only sources, label HLS as Auto, preserve captions after a quality switch
  • jwplayerIsReady now dispatched on the main queue
  • Fix accessibility label when player-item title/description are empty
  • Fix toolbar transparency on the error screen when UIDesignRequiresCompatibility is true
  • New bufferHealth on JWTimeData for live-stream buffer metrics
  • New public JWJSONParser.playlistItems(from:) API
  • deviceId / deviceModel renamed to camelCase
  • ⚠️ Minimum iOS deployment target raised to 15.6

• Android: JW Player SDK 4.24.2 → 4.25.0 — Android changelog

  • Fix user-interaction crash during player teardown
  • Fix ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException crash on API 31+
  • Fix oversized captions when the player view is taller than the video
  • Fix VAST progress-bar freeze after an ad error
  • Fix live audio stream showing an infinite spinner with missing controls
  • Fix IMA preroll playing simultaneously with content on replay
  • bufferedPosition exposed on BufferChangeEvent for live-stream buffer health
  • Ad-tag macro replacement for IMA ads

Bridge fixes

• Cast-aware reconfigure preserves the active Chromecast session across config changes (#221)
• Normalize event payloads across iOS and Android (#226)
• Normalize iOS seek event properties to match Android and TS types (#224)
• iOS onBeforeNextPlaylistItem no longer fires on the initial playlist load (#220)
• Android: onPlaylist now fires (previously a no-op), onPlaylistItem.playlistItem JSON uses readable keys instead of ProGuarded field names, and onAdEvent emits a type on AdLoaded / AdLoadedXml / AdBreakIgnored (landed in the release branch, #229)

What's Changed

• Fix IOS running onBeforeNextPlaylistItem callback on initial video load by @normtronics in #220
• fix: normalize iOS seek event properties to match Android and TS types by @Jmilham21 in #224
• Upgrade native SDKs — iOS 4.26.0 / Android 4.25.0 by @Jmilham21 in #227
• Add setPlaylistItemMetadata for live-stream metadata updates by @Jmilham21 in #228
• fix: cast-aware reconfigure to preserve Chromecast session by @Jmilham21 in #221
• fix: normalize event payloads across iOS and Android by @Jmilham21 in #226
• Release v1.5.0 by @Jmilham21 in #229

Full Changelog: v1.4.1...v1.5.0

v1.4.1

What's Changed

• Bump JW Android SDK from 4.24.1 to 4.24.2
• Release v1.4.1 by @Jmilham21 in #219

Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v1.4.1

v1.4.0

v1.4.0

Native SDK Upgrades

• iOS: JWPlayerKit 4.25.1 → 4.25.2
• Android: JW Player SDK 4.24.0 → 4.24.1

Bug Fixes

• fix(ios): replace force-unwrap with safe cast in resolveNextPlaylistItem by @Jmilham21 in #215
• fix: resolve onBeforeNextPlaylistItem crash and ad issues (#211) by @Jmilham21 in #214

Native SDK Changes (included via version bump)

iOS 4.25.2

• Improved threading safety for event callbacks
• Fixed ad container layout in scrollable contexts
• Fixed caption track selection for DRM content
• Player controls now remain visible while paused

Android 4.24.1

• Fixed ad prerolls not playing on subsequent playlist items when using async playlist callbacks
• onTime events now fire while a DVR stream is paused
• Improved null safety for ad API calls
• Fixed Chromecast caption visibility and restoration

Maintenance

• Reduced npm package size from 151 kB to 91 kB
• Added build-info hooks to the Example app

What's Changed

• fix(ios): replace force-unwrap with safe cast in resolveNextPlaylistItem by @Jmilham21 in #215
• fix: resolve onBeforeNextPlaylistItem crash and ad issues (#211) by @Jmilham21 in #214
• Release v1.4.0 by @Jmilham21 in #217

Full Changelog: v1.3.4...v1.4.0

v1.3.4

What's Changed

Bug Fixes

• fix: Ensure player cleanup runs on main thread to prevent crash on unmount (#206)
• fix: Prevent race conditions during player destruction and enhance error handling (#205)

Dependencies

• Upgrade iOS SDK to JWPlayerKit 4.25.1 (#209)
  • See iOS 4.25.1 changelog for native SDK changes

Maintenance

• Exclude AI configuration files from npm package

Full Changelog: v1.3.2...v1.3.4

---

Note: v1.3.3 was skipped due to a packaging issue.

v1.3.2

Release Notes - v1.3.2

🐛 Bug Fixes

Android: Remove Accidental Command Paste in ImaHelper

Problem: An accidental terminal command was left in the ImaHelper.java source code from v1.3.1, causing compilation errors for projects using Google IMA.

Solution: Removed the errant command line text from the ImaHelper class.

Impact: Android builds with IMA enabled now compile successfully without syntax errors.

---

📦 Installation

npm install @jwplayer/jwplayer-react-native@1.3.2
# or
yarn add @jwplayer/jwplayer-react-native@1.3.2

---

What's Changed

• Fix bad copy and paste command by @Jmilham21 in a594796

Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.3.2

v1.3.1

Release Notes - v1.3.1

🐛 Bug Fixes

Android: Make IMA Dependency Optional (#201)

Problem: After v1.3.0, developers not using Google IMA ads encountered Android build failures requiring core library desugaring even when IMA wasn't being used.

Solution: Implemented Gradle source sets to make the jwplayer-ima dependency truly optional:

• IMA dependencies only included when RNJWPlayerUseGoogleIMA = true
• No desugaring required for non-IMA users
• Graceful degradation: player loads without ads instead of crashing
• Clear warnings when IMA is configured but not enabled

Impact: VAST-only users can now build without IMA dependencies or desugaring requirements.

---

🔧 Technical Changes

• Split IMA code into separate source sets (src/ima/ and src/noima/)
• Added support for both "client" and "adClient" property names in advertising configs
• Improved null-safety and validation in advertising configuration
• Enhanced developer experience with clear warning messages

---

📦 Installation

npm install @jwplayer/jwplayer-react-native@1.3.1
# or
yarn add @jwplayer/jwplayer-react-native@1.3.1

---

⚙️ Configuration

For IMA users (no change):

// app/build.gradle
buildscript {
    ext {
        RNJWPlayerUseGoogleIMA = true
    }
}

For VAST-only users (now works without desugaring):

// app/build.gradle
buildscript {
    ext {
        RNJWPlayerUseGoogleIMA = false  // or omit entirely
    }
}

---

What's Changed

• Fix Android build failure for non-IMA users (#201) by @Jmilham21 in #203
• [Release] 1.3.1 by @Jmilham21 in #204

Full Changelog: v1.3.0...v1.3.1

v1.3.0

Release 1.3.0

🎉 What's New

Native SDK Upgrades

iOS SDK 4.25.0

• Chromecast Improvements: Fixed embedded captions not displaying on Chromecast devices
• Playback Fixes:
  • Fixed video not completing after post-roll ad
  • Fixed video pausing after scrubbing during playback
• UI Improvements:
  • Fixed Next Up card showing wrong video
  • Fixed toolbar transparency issue with UIDesignRequiresCompatibility on iOS 26
  • Fixed iOS 26 black screen in JWPlayerView after ad break
• Stability: Prevented AVPlayerItem crash when adding outputs that are already attached

See full details: iOS 4.25.0 Changelog

Android SDK 4.24.0

• Ad SDK Upgrade: Upgraded Google IMA SDK to version 3.37.0
  • ⚠️ Important: Core library desugaring must be enabled when adding Google IMA client dependencies
  • ⚠️ Breaking: Requires setting compiling and target SDK versions when adding the SDK
• Chromecast Improvements: Improved support for embedded captions in HLS streams when casting to Chromecast
• Stability: Fixed Picture-in-Picture (PiP) crash that could occur when PiP was triggered multiple times in quick succession

See full details: Android 4.24.0 Changelog

React Native Wrapper Improvements

• Fixed: License key handling in TypeScript example (#199)
• Fixed: Player recreation with configuration updates (#194 - fixes issues #192, #188)
• Enhanced: Player item handling in YouTube example component (#191)
• Improved: Added bottom padding for Android navigation (#190)
• Documentation: Updated JSON parsed configs documentation (#187)
• Documentation: Updated README with rebranding and latest information (#196)
• Native SDK: Implemented Android 4.24.0 (#197)
• Native SDK: Implemented iOS 4.25.0 (#198)

📦 Installation

npm install @jwplayer/jwplayer-react-native@1.3.0

or

yarn add @jwplayer/jwplayer-react-native@1.3.0

⚠️ Breaking Changes

Android

When upgrading to Android SDK 4.24.0, you must:

1. Set the compiling and target SDK versions in your app configuration
2. Enable core library desugaring if using Google IMA client dependencies

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed license key not being properly passed in TypeScript example
• Fixed player recreation issues when updating configurations dynamically
• Fixed multiple Chromecast-related playback issues (via native SDK updates)
• Fixed PiP stability issues on Android (via native SDK update)
• Fixed various iOS 26 compatibility issues (via native SDK update)

📚 Documentation

• Enhanced documentation for JSON configuration parsing
• Updated README with current setup instructions
• Improved example app implementations

🙏 Contributors

Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!

• @Jmilham21
• @kcorneli201

What's Changed

• Upgrade Example to 1.2.0 by @Jmilham21 in #185
• feat: add bottom padding for Android navigation by @Jmilham21 in #190
• Fix for issue 192 and 188 recreate with configs by @Jmilham21 in #194
• feat: enhance player item handling in YoutubeExample component by @Jmilham21 in #191
• Upgrade Documentation about JSON parsed configs by @Jmilham21 in #187
• Update README.md (rebranding) by @kcorneli201 in #196
• Implement Android 4.24.0 by @Jmilham21 in #197
• Implement iOS 4.25.0 by @Jmilham21 in #198
• fix: Send proper license key in typescript example by @Jmilham21 in #199
• [Release] 1.3.0 by @Jmilham21 in #200

---

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.3.0

v1.2.0

What's Changed

• Release 1.1.3 by @Jmilham21 in #178
• Upgrade Android 4.21.1 by @Jmilham21 in #182
• Upgrade iOS 4.23.2 by @Jmilham21 in #181
• feat: add recreatePlayerWithConfig method for dynamic player configuration on iOS by @Jmilham21 in #180
• Release 1.2.0 by @Jmilham21 in #184

Full Changelog: v1.1.3...v1.2.0