Android webview cannot render youtube video embedded via iframe

Question

This is about loading youtube videos using latest embedded format (iframe) inside a webview.

Example of the iframe embed format

<iframe width="637" height="358" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/olC42gO-Ln4?fs=1&amp;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

Test the code on Android 2.3.3 & 3.2 devices (HTC Desire & Asus Transformer), the webview would only show a black rectangle.

I tried a similar embed from vimeo

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/35693267" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0"></iframe>

In 2.3, video played correctly
In 3.2, a black rectangle flashed and disappeared, the iframe area is blank.

Finally if the old embed format (using the object tag) is used, the video is displayed properly inside the webview in both 2.3.3 & 3.2.

I have checked related questions and added

android:hardwareAccelerated="true"

in the application and/or activity tag but still no video in both 2.3 & 3.2 devices.

This is a big problem because more websites are now using the newest format (iframe) to embed their youtube videos. Android/Youtube Team, please take a look at this problem.

Answer 1

Android browsers are utterly buggy what comes to video playback and embedding. It simply does not work across devices. Trying to get it working is just waste of your time. My suggestion is that you don't try to include <iframe> but simply provide a thumbnail of the video which directly links to YouTube page or h264 file.

Earlier discussion, with a possible solution.

Google Reader-esque optimizing of WebViews on Android