ExoPlayer

ExoPlayer is an application level media player for Android. It provides an alternative to Android’s MediaPlayer API for playing audio and video both locally and over the Internet. ExoPlayer supports features not currently supported by Android’s MediaPlayer API, including DASH and SmoothStreaming adaptive playbacks. Unlike the MediaPlayer API, ExoPlayer is easy to customize and extend, and can be updated through Play Store application updates.

Documentation

• The developer guide provides a wealth of information.
• The class reference documents ExoPlayer classes.
• The release notes document the major changes in each release.
• Follow our developer blog to keep up to date with the latest ExoPlayer developments!

Using ExoPlayer

ExoPlayer modules can be obtained from the Google Maven repository. It's also possible to clone the repository and depend on the modules locally.

From the Google Maven repository

1. Add ExoPlayer module dependencies

The easiest way to get started using ExoPlayer is to add it as a gradle dependency in the build.gradle file of your app module. The following will add a dependency to the full library:

implementation 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer:2.X.X'

where 2.X.X is your preferred version.

Note: old versions of ExoPlayer are available via JCenter. To use them, you need to add jcenter() to your project's root build.gradle repositories block.

As an alternative to the full library, you can depend on only the library modules that you actually need. For example the following will add dependencies on the Core, DASH and UI library modules, as might be required for an app that plays DASH content:

implementation 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer-core:2.X.X'
implementation 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer-dash:2.X.X'
implementation 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer-ui:2.X.X'

The available library modules are listed below. Adding a dependency to the full library is equivalent to adding dependencies on all of the library modules individually.

• exoplayer-core: Core functionality (required).
• exoplayer-dash: Support for DASH content.
• exoplayer-hls: Support for HLS content.
• exoplayer-smoothstreaming: Support for SmoothStreaming content.
• exoplayer-ui: UI components and resources for use with ExoPlayer.

In addition to library modules, ExoPlayer has extension modules that depend on external libraries to provide additional functionality. Some extensions are available from the Maven repository, whereas others must be built manually. Browse the extensions directory and their individual READMEs for details.

More information on the library and extension modules that are available can be found on the Google Maven ExoPlayer page.

2. Turn on Java 8 support

If not enabled already, you also need to turn on Java 8 support in all build.gradle files depending on ExoPlayer, by adding the following to the android section:

compileOptions {
  targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}

Locally

Cloning the repository and depending on the modules locally is required when using some ExoPlayer extension modules. It's also a suitable approach if you want to make local changes to ExoPlayer, or if you want to use a development branch.

First, clone the repository into a local directory and checkout the desired branch:

git clone https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer.git
cd ExoPlayer
git checkout release-v2

Next, add the following to your project's settings.gradle file, replacing path/to/exoplayer with the path to your local copy:

gradle.ext.exoplayerRoot = 'path/to/exoplayer'
gradle.ext.exoplayerModulePrefix = 'exoplayer-'
apply from: new File(gradle.ext.exoplayerRoot, 'core_settings.gradle')

You should now see the ExoPlayer modules appear as part of your project. You can depend on them as you would on any other local module, for example:

implementation project(':exoplayer-library-core')
implementation project(':exoplayer-library-dash')
implementation project(':exoplayer-library-ui')

Developing ExoPlayer

Project branches

• Development work happens on the dev-v2 branch. Pull requests should normally be made to this branch.
• The release-v2 branch holds the most recent release.

Using Android Studio

To develop ExoPlayer using Android Studio, simply open the ExoPlayer project in the root directory of the repository.