fix: sync playback speed between parent and thread video players by yuvrajangadsingh · Pull Request #85195 · Expensify/App

yuvrajangadsingh · 2026-03-13T07:33:41Z

Explanation of Change

when you change playback speed on a video in a parent chat and navigate to the thread, the thread player plays at 1x and the speed menu shows 1x instead of your selection.

two things were wrong:

new player instances never got the stored playback speed applied on mount. VolumeContext already solved the exact same problem for volume by watching originalParent from PlaybackContext and re-applying the stored value when the active player changes. added the same pattern to VideoPopoverMenuContext.
showPopoverMenu in BaseVideoPlayer was reading the local player's playbackRate and writing it back to global state via updatePlaybackSpeed. so opening the menu on a thread player (still at 1x) would overwrite the user's 2x selection. removed this reverse-sync.

Fixed Issues

$ #84443
PROPOSAL: #84443 (comment)

Tests

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console
Send a video in any chat
Change playback speed to 2x on the video
Reply to the message to create a thread
Open the thread and play the video
Verify the video plays at 2x (not 1x)
Open the speed menu in the thread
Verify the menu shows 2x as selected (not 1x)

Offline tests

N/A - playback speed is stored in memory, not persisted

QA Steps

Send a video in any chat
Change playback speed to 2x
Reply to create a thread
Open the thread, play the video
Verify it plays at 2x and the speed menu shows 2x

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

yuvrajangadsingh · 2026-03-13T07:39:11Z

src/components/VideoPlayerContexts/VideoPopoverMenuContext.tsx

+        if (currentVideoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate === currentPlaybackSpeed) {
+            return;
+        }
+        currentVideoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate = currentPlaybackSpeed;


core fix, same pattern as VolumeContext (line 41-46) which re-applies stored volume when originalParent changes. when user navigates to thread, originalParent updates and this applies stored playback speed to the new player.

yuvrajangadsingh · 2026-03-13T07:39:24Z

src/components/VideoPlayer/BaseVideoPlayer.tsx

@@ -225,10 +224,9 @@ function BaseVideoPlayer({

    const showPopoverMenu = (event?: GestureResponderEvent | KeyboardEvent) => {
        updateVideoPopoverMenuPlayerRef(videoPlayerRef.current);


removed the reverse-sync that was overwriting global playback speed from the local player. previously opening the popover menu on a thread player (still at 1x default) would write 1x back to global state, wiping out the 2x the user selected. the useEffect in VideoPopoverMenuContext now handles keeping players in sync.

melvin-bot · 2026-03-13T07:43:42Z

@ZhenjaHorbach Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

JmillsExpensify

Product review isn't required on this one.

ZhenjaHorbach · 2026-03-13T11:24:06Z

src/components/VideoPlayerContexts/VideoPopoverMenuContext.tsx

+        if (currentVideoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate === currentPlaybackSpeed) {
+            return;


I think this condition is a bit redundant

And we don't need ref in dependencies

So let's use something like this

useEffect(() => { if (!originalParent || !currentVideoPlayerRef.current) { return; } if (currentVideoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate !== currentPlaybackSpeed) { currentVideoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate = currentPlaybackSpeed; } }, [originalParent, currentPlaybackSpeed]);

good catch, fixed in 0d87aa8

yuvrajangadsingh · 2026-03-13T13:12:16Z

@ZhenjaHorbach addressed both, removed the ref from deps and the redundant condition. ready for another look

Fixes Expensify#84443

ZhenjaHorbach · 2026-03-16T15:10:58Z

Reviewer Checklist

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Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

2026-03-16.16.44.26.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

2026-03-16.16.41.30.mov

iOS: HybridApp

2026-03-16.16.44.26.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

2026-03-16.16.41.30.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

2026-03-16.16.36.36.mov

ZhenjaHorbach · 2026-03-16T15:49:39Z

LGTM!

codecov · 2026-03-16T17:02:34Z

Codecov Report

✅ Changes either increased or maintained existing code coverage, great job!

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
...ts/VideoPlayerContexts/VideoPopoverMenuContext.tsx	`84.84% <100.00%> (+2.08%)`	⬆️
src/components/VideoPlayer/BaseVideoPlayer.tsx	`50.35% <50.00%> (+0.17%)`	⬆️
... and 17 files with indirect coverage changes

github-actions · 2026-03-16T17:57:08Z

🚧 @AndrewGable has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

OSBotify · 2026-03-16T18:01:11Z

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

github-actions · 2026-03-16T18:05:46Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #85195.

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OSBotify · 2026-03-17T11:56:26Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/AndrewGable in version: 9.3.39-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

OSBotify · 2026-03-18T13:03:32Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/cristipaval in version: 9.3.39-3 🚀

platform	result
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🤖 android 🤖	failure ❌
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

melvin-bot bot assigned yuvrajangadsingh Mar 13, 2026

yuvrajangadsingh commented Mar 13, 2026

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yuvrajangadsingh marked this pull request as ready for review March 13, 2026 07:43

yuvrajangadsingh requested review from a team as code owners March 13, 2026 07:43

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melvin-bot bot requested review from JmillsExpensify and removed request for a team March 13, 2026 07:43

yuvrajangadsingh mentioned this pull request Mar 13, 2026

[$250] Attachment - Thread's playback speed is not the same with parent's #84443

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JmillsExpensify reviewed Mar 13, 2026

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yuvrajangadsingh requested a review from ZhenjaHorbach March 13, 2026 13:11

yuvrajangadsingh force-pushed the fix/84443-thread-playback-speed branch from 0d87aa8 to 9c80207 Compare March 14, 2026 18:49

yuvrajangadsingh added 2 commits March 16, 2026 18:13

fix: sync playback speed between parent and thread video players

3c3cea4

Fixes Expensify#84443

fix: remove ref from useEffect dependency array

505dece

yuvrajangadsingh force-pushed the fix/84443-thread-playback-speed branch from 9c80207 to 505dece Compare March 16, 2026 12:44

ZhenjaHorbach approved these changes Mar 16, 2026

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melvin-bot bot requested a review from AndrewGable March 16, 2026 15:49

AndrewGable approved these changes Mar 16, 2026

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AndrewGable merged commit 9f8fb9f into Expensify:main Mar 16, 2026
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Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-03-17 #85529

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		@@ -225,10 +224,9 @@ function BaseVideoPlayer({

		const showPopoverMenu = (event?: GestureResponderEvent \| KeyboardEvent) => {
		updateVideoPopoverMenuPlayerRef(videoPlayerRef.current);

		if (currentVideoPlayerRef.current.playbackRate === currentPlaybackSpeed) {
		return;

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