AVPlayerViewController Swipe UISwipeGestureRecognizer.up not working Xcode 12 tvOS 14

Question

We have just updated Xcode to version 12 and, among others, we have found an issue with setting up a UISwipeGestureRecognizer.up to an AVPlayerViewController. We use that gesture for showing a custom channel changer view. The main issue that it was working on Xcode 11.7 and tvOS 13.

Furthermore, I have debugged the gestureRecognisers for AVPlayerViewController.view and there is no UISwipeGestureRecognizer.

Here is the code I am using

import UIKit
import AVKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    private var playerViewController: AVPlayerViewController? {
        didSet {
            guard let playerViewController = playerViewController else {
                return
            }
            
            playerViewController.view.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
            
            let swipeGesture = UISwipeGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(testGestureResponse))
            //swipeGesture.direction = .up // Not working
            //swipeGesture.direction = .left
            //swipeGesture.direction = .down
            swipeGesture.direction = .right
            
            playerViewController.view.addGestureRecognizer(swipeGesture)
        }
    }
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        playerViewController = AVPlayerViewController()
        let playerViewController = self.playerViewController!
        
        playerViewController.willMove(toParent: self)
        view.addSubview(playerViewController.view)
        playerViewController.view.frame = view.frame
        addChild(playerViewController)
        playerViewController.didMove(toParent: self)
        
        playerViewController.player = AVPlayer(url: URL(string: "https://devstreaming-cdn.apple.com/videos/streaming/examples/bipbop_adv_example_hevc/master.m3u8")!)
        playerViewController.player?.play()
    }

    
    @objc func testGestureResponse(gesture: UIGestureRecognizer) {
        print("Hello!!!")
    }

}

Is there a different way to do it now?

Answer 1

AVPlayerViewController.CustomOverlayViewController was introduced in tvOS 13 and apparently mandatory from tvOS 14. If you want to add a channel charger (or any other view) when swiping up then:

private var playerViewController: AVPlayerViewController? {
    didSet {
        guard let playerViewController = playerViewController else {
            return
        }
        playerViewController.customOverlayViewController = myChannelChangerVC
    }
}

Resources

• https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/503/
• https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avkit/adopting_custom_interactive_overlays_channel_flipping_and_parental_controls_in_tvos_video_playback