Manual Configuration

If you prefer not to use the Expo plugin you can configure react-native-video manually by editing the native project files directly. The steps below show the exact changes performed by the plugin so you can reproduce them in a plain React Native or bare Expo project.

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iOS

Enable Background Audio

To allow video sound to continue when the app goes to the background add the audio mode to Info.plist:

ios/YourApp/Info.plist

<key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
<array>
  <string>audio</string>
</array>

Android

Configure ExoPlayer extensions

By default the library enables DASH & HLS extensions. You can fine-tune this by adding properties to gradle.properties:

android/gradle.properties

# Enable / disable ExoPlayer extensions used by react-native-video
RNVideo_useExoplayerDash=true   # DASH playback support
RNVideo_useExoplayerHls=true    # HLS  playback support

Set a value to false to exclude the corresponding extension and reduce APK size.

Enable Picture-in-Picture (PiP)

Add the android:supportsPictureInPicture flag to your main activity in AndroidManifest.xml:

android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml

<application>
  <activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:supportsPictureInPicture="true"
    ...>
    <!-- other attributes -->
  </activity>
</application>

PiP requires API 26+ (Android 8.0). Make sure minSdkVersion is at least 26 when enabling this feature.

Verification

After the modifications:

1. iOS – run cd ios && pod install then build the app from Xcode or via npx react-native run-ios / npx expo run:ios.
2. Android – clean & rebuild the project: ./gradlew clean && ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug or simply run npx react-native run-android / npx expo run:android.

If the build succeeds your manual configuration is complete.

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Need an easier way?

Use the Expo plugin to apply exactly the same changes automatically during expo prebuild.