Automatically starting media on mobile devices

By default, browsers on mobile devices play media only when the media is initiated by a user gesture, such as a finger tap on a button. Additionally, if the action is delayed for more than one second, the media will not play, even if it is initiated by a user gesture.

Saba Publisher Online provides several methods of initiating media play without a user gesture. Therefore, to achieve the desired effect on mobile devices, the following circumstances require special handling:

Audio used as a background sound
“Auto Start” property enabled for the media
Target of a play action with a delay of more than 1 second
Target of a play action triggered by something other than a user gesture, such as the Show, Hide, or Done Playing trigger.
Target of a play action that is contained within an action group
Target of a play action triggered by a synchronized event from another media object

You can have up to 25 of these cases per page on a mobile device. However, if you have a page with more than 25 total audio and video objects that require special handling, one or more of them may not play as desired. When the project is published, you will see the following warning message:

W4060 - You have more than 25 audio / video objects that require special handling for mobile devices. Some of them may not work properly. See the Help for details.

To ensure all of your media are played on mobile devices, confirm that Publish for Seamless Play is enabled when specifying HTML options during publishing and that there are no more than 25 total audio and video objects on a single page (including inherited objects) that require special handling as identified above. For details about specifying HTML options, see Specifying HTML options.