iOS multiple videos at once

According to some charts about students on the internet, attention spans were roughly 150s in 2004. They’ve decreased to 40s as of 2024. This is alarming, but as someone who’s deep-friend their brain by spending the last decade on the internet, it makes sense. I could go on a tangent about how with the proliferation of mobile devices, the half-life of memes rapidly decreased, resulting in a veritable pressure cooker for our minds, but I’m not going to do that because y’all are here for the chuckles.

Anyways, on a semi-related note, iOS supports the ability to preview a mini-version of a video even if you leave the application where the video was originally playing. This is great if you’re researching a DIY repair, trying to cook something, or hoping to consume as much possible as far as possible.

Apple’s product team made the reasonable decision to support one video at a time. However, with the rise of split-screen content, I asked myself, “What would it look like for iOS to support multiple videos playing simultaneously?”

The problem with this design is that at some point it will degrade the core experience (ie, you won’t be able to use your phone because you’re watching too many videos). Also, you’d have to figure out what video has volume on, or if all of them have the volume on… It could be quite chaotic. Fun, but chaotic.

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