---
title: UI components
---

An app playing media requires user interface components for displaying media and
controlling playback. The ExoPlayer library includes a UI module that contains
a number of UI components. To depend on the UI module add a dependency as shown
below.

~~~
implementation 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer-ui:2.X.X'
~~~
{: .language-gradle}

The most important components are `StyledPlayerControlView`, `StyledPlayerView`,
`PlayerControlView` and `PlayerView`. The styled variants provide a more
polished user experience, however are harder to customize.

* [`StyledPlayerControlView`][] and [`PlayerControlView`][] are views for
  controlling playbacks. They display standard playback controls including a
  play/pause button, fast-forward and rewind buttons, and a seek bar.
* [`StyledPlayerView`][] and [`PlayerView`][] are high level views for
  playbacks. They display video, subtitles and album art during playback, as
  well as playback controls using a `StyledPlayerControlView` or
  `PlayerControlView` respectively.

All four views have a `setPlayer` method for attaching and detaching (by passing
`null`) player instances.

## Player views ##

`StyledPlayerView` and `PlayerView` can be used for both video and audio
playbacks. They render video and subtitles in the case of video playback, and
can display artwork included as metadata in audio files. You can include them in
your layout files like any other UI component. For example, a `StyledPlayerView`
can be included with the following XML:

~~~
<com.google.android.exoplayer2.ui.StyledPlayerView
    android:id="@+id/player_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    app:show_buffering="when_playing"
    app:show_shuffle_button="true"/>
~~~
{: .language-xml}

The snippet above illustrates that `StyledPlayerView` provides several
attributes. These attributes can be used to customize the view's behavior, as
well as its look and feel. Most of these attributes have corresponding setter
methods, which can be used to customize the view at runtime. The
[`StyledPlayerView`][] Javadoc lists these attributes and setter methods in
more detail. [`PlayerView`][] defines similar attributes.

Once the view is declared in the layout file, it can be looked up in the
`onCreate` method of the activity:

~~~
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  // ...
  playerView = findViewById(R.id.player_view);
}
~~~
{: .language-java}

When a player has been initialized, it can be attached to the view by calling
`setPlayer`:

~~~
// Instantiate the player.
player = new ExoPlayer.Builder(context).build();
// Attach player to the view.
playerView.setPlayer(player);
// Set the media source to be played.
player.setMediaSource(createMediaSource());
// Prepare the player.
player.prepare();
~~~
{: .language-java}

### Choosing a surface type ###

The `surface_type` attribute of `StyledPlayerView` and `PlayerView` lets you set
the type of surface used for video playback. Besides the values
`spherical_gl_surface_view` (which is a special value for spherical video
playback) and `video_decoder_gl_surface_view` (which is for video rendering
using extension renderers), the allowed values are `surface_view`,
`texture_view` and `none`. If the view is for audio playback only, `none` should
be used to avoid having to create a surface, since doing so can be expensive.

If the view is for regular video playback then `surface_view` or `texture_view`
should be used. `SurfaceView` has a number of benefits over `TextureView` for
video playback:

* Significantly lower power consumption on many devices.
* More accurate frame timing, resulting in smoother video playback.
* Support for secure output when playing DRM protected content.
* The ability to render video content at the full resolution of the display on
  Android TV devices that upscale the UI layer.

`SurfaceView` should therefore be preferred over `TextureView` where possible.
`TextureView` should be used only if `SurfaceView` does not meet your needs. One
example is where smooth animations or scrolling of the video surface is required
prior to Android N, as described below. For this case, it's preferable to use
`TextureView` only when [`SDK_INT`][] is less than 24 (Android N) and
`SurfaceView` otherwise.

`SurfaceView` rendering wasn't properly synchronized with view animations until
Android N. On earlier releases this could result in unwanted effects when a
`SurfaceView` was placed into scrolling container, or when it was subjected to
animation. Such effects included the view's contents appearing to lag slightly
behind where it should be displayed, and the view turning black when subjected
to animation. To achieve smooth animation or scrolling of video prior to Android
N, it's therefore necessary to use `TextureView` rather than `SurfaceView`.
{:.info}

Some Android TV devices run their UI layer at a resolution that's lower than the
full resolution of the display, upscaling it for presentation to the user. For
example, the UI layer may be run at 1080p on an Android TV that has a 4K
display. On such devices, `SurfaceView` must be used to render content at the
full resolution of the display. The full resolution of the display (in its
current display mode) can be queried using [`Util.getCurrentDisplayModeSize`][].
The UI layer resolution can be queried using Android's [`Display.getSize`] API.
{:.info}

## Player control views ##

When using `StyledPlayerView`, a `StyledPlayerControlView` is used internally to
provide playback controls. When using a `PlayerView`, a `PlayerControlView` is
used internally.

For specific use cases `StyledPlayerControlView` and `PlayerControlView` can
also be used as standalone components. They can be included in your layout file
as normal. For example:

~~~
<com.google.android.exoplayer2.ui.StyledPlayerControlView
    android:id="@+id/player_control_view"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
~~~
{: .language-xml}

The [`StyledPlayerControlView`][] and [`PlayerControlView`][] Javadoc list the
the available attributes and setter methods for these components. Looking them
up and attaching the player is similar to the example above:

~~~
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  // ...
  playerControlView = findViewById(R.id.player_control_view);
}

private void initializePlayer() {
  // Instantiate the player.
  player = new ExoPlayer.Builder(context).build();
  // Attach player to the view.
  playerControlView.setPlayer(player);
  // Prepare the player with the dash media source.
  player.prepare(createMediaSource());
}
~~~
{: .language-java}

## Customization ##

Where significant customization is required, we expect that app developers will
implement their own UI components rather than using those provided by
ExoPlayer's UI module. That said, the provided UI components do allow for
customization by setting attributes (as described above), overriding drawables,
overriding layout files, and by specifying custom layout files.

### Overriding drawables ###

The drawables used by `StyledPlayerControlView` and `PlayerControlView`
(with their default layout files) can be overridden by drawables with the same
names defined in your application. See the [`StyledPlayerControlView`][] and
[`PlayerControlView`][] Javadoc for a list of drawables that can be overridden.
Note that overriding these drawables will also affect the appearance of
`PlayerView` and `StyledPlayerView`, since they use these views internally.

### Overriding layout files ###

All of the view components inflate their layouts from corresponding layout
files, which are specified in their Javadoc. For example when a
`PlayerControlView` is instantiated, it inflates its layout from
`exo_player_control_view.xml`. To customize these layouts, an application can
define layout files with the same names in its own `res/layout*` directories.
These layout files will override the ones provided by the ExoPlayer library.

As an example, suppose we want our playback controls to consist of only a
play/pause button positioned in the center of the view. We can achieve this by
creating an `exo_player_control_view.xml` file in the application’s `res/layout`
directory, containing:

~~~
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

  <ImageButton android:id="@id/exo_play"
      android:layout_width="100dp"
      android:layout_height="100dp"
      android:layout_gravity="center"
      android:background="#CC000000"
      style="@style/ExoMediaButton.Play"/>

  <ImageButton android:id="@id/exo_pause"
      android:layout_width="100dp"
      android:layout_height="100dp"
      android:layout_gravity="center"
      android:background="#CC000000"
      style="@style/ExoMediaButton.Pause"/>

</FrameLayout>
~~~
{: .language-xml}

The change in visual appearance compared to the standard controls is shown
below.

{% include figure.html url="/images/overriding-layoutfiles.png" index="1" caption="Replacing the standard playback controls (left) with custom controls (right)" %}

### Custom layout files ###

Overriding a layout file is an excellent solution for changing the layout across
the whole of an application, but what if a custom layout is required only in a
single place? To achieve this, first define a layout file as though overriding
one of the default layouts, but this time giving it a different file name, for
example `custom_controls.xml`. Second, use an attribute to indicate that this
layout should be used when inflating the view. For example when using
`PlayerView`, the layout inflated to provide the playback controls can be
specified using the `controller_layout_id` attribute:

~~~
<com.google.android.exoplayer2.ui.PlayerView android:id="@+id/player_view"
     android:layout_width="match_parent"
     android:layout_height="match_parent"
     app:controller_layout_id="@layout/custom_controls"/>
~~~
{: .language-xml}

[`PlayerView`]: {{ site.exo_sdk }}/ui/PlayerView.html
[`PlayerControlView`]: {{ site.exo_sdk }}/ui/PlayerControlView.html
[`StyledPlayerView`]: {{ site.exo_sdk }}/ui/StyledPlayerView.html
[`StyledPlayerControlView`]: {{ site.exo_sdk }}/ui/StyledPlayerControlView.html
[`SDK_INT`]: {{ site.android_sdk }}/android/os/Build.VERSION.html#SDK_INT
[`Util.getCurrentDisplayModeSize`]: {{ site.exo_sdk }}/util/Util.html#getCurrentDisplayModeSize(android.content.Context)
[`Display.getSize`]: {{ site.android_sdk }}/android/view/Display.html#getSize(android.graphics.Point)
