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Universal Search

Overview​

Quickplay Player libraries support Universal Search, enabling users to watch content from the Apple TV or Apple TV+ app with search and continue watching functionalities. Additionally, it can send push notifications for new content.

Prerequisites​

  • Metadata Feed Integration in Backend: Ensure that your backend systems are integrated with the necessary metadata feeds to provide content information to Apple's services.

  • Application Entitlements: The application must have the appropriate entitlements enabled for Universal Search and Extended Entitlement in the application provisioning profile. Specifically, your developer account should be registered as a Universal Search partner, and the extended entitlement should be granted by Apple.

  • Deep Linking Support: The application must support deep linking to open, play, or resume watching content. Deep links should accept an optional resumeTime parameter in seconds to start playback at the appropriate time.

  • Subscription and Entitlement Registration: If applicable, the application should support registering user subscriptions and entitlements using the Subscription Registration API provided via the VSSubscriptionRegistrationCenter class in the VideoSubscriberAccount framework.

  • Siri Integration: The application can register user activities to enable Siri interactions, enhancing the user experience through voice commands.

Now Playing Info​

To enable the Apple TV app to track playback progress for the "Up Next" queue, playback activity data must be gathered and reported to the system. This can be achieved through the following methods:

  1. AVKit on tvOS: Populate the metadata array of an AVPlayerItem using instances of AVMetadataItem. However, since AVKit is not supported in this context, this method is not applicable.

  2. Manual Reporting Using MPNowPlayingInfoCenter: For iOS and non-AVKit tvOS applications, use the MPNowPlayingInfoCenter to manually report playback activity.

Manual Reporting of Playback Activity​

The process involves:

  • Registration of Remote Commands via MPRemoteCommandCenter: This is handled within the player. Remote commands are registered upon the creation of the player instance and unregistered when the instance is deinitialized. Therefore, the application does not need to manage remote command registration separately.

  • Updating Now Playing Info on Playback Events: Once the player is created, set the metadata that remains constant during the playback session. For example:

    let nowPlayingInfo: [String: Any] = [
        MPNowPlayingInfoPropertyExternalContentIdentifier: contentIdOfTheContent,
        MPMediaItemPropertyTitle: titleOfTheContent
    ]
    player.nowPlayingInfo = nowPlayingInfo

    The MPNowPlayingInfoPropertyExternalContentIdentifier is mandatory, and other properties like MPMediaItemPropertyTitle provide additional context.

  • Automatic Playback Position and Rate Updates: To ensure accurate reporting of playback position and rate based on player events, enable automatic reporting within the player:

    var playerPreference: [PlayerPreference] = [.assignRemoteActions(true)]
    player.set(preferences: playerPreference)

    These steps ensure that the nowPlayingInfo is updated appropriately, allowing the Apple TV app to display the "Up Next" queue with accurate positions.

For more details about Universal Search integration, refer to the Apple TV App and Universal Search Video Integration Guide.