HTMLMediaElement: play event

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The play event is fired when the paused property is changed from true to false, as a result of the play method, or the autoplay attribute.

This event is not cancelable and does not bubble.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

js
addEventListener("play", (event) => { })

onplay = (event) => { }

Event type

A generic Event.

Examples

These examples add an event listener for the HTMLMediaElement's play event, then post a message when that event handler has reacted to the event firing.

Using addEventListener():

js
const video = document.querySelector("video");

video.addEventListener("play", (event) => {
  console.log(
    "The Boolean paused property is now 'false'. Either the play() method was called or the autoplay attribute was toggled.",
  );
});

Using the onplay event handler property:

js
const video = document.querySelector("video");

video.onplay = (event) => {
  console.log(
    "The Boolean paused property is now 'false'. Either the play() method was called or the autoplay attribute was toggled.",
  );
};

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# event-media-play
HTML
# handler-onplay

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
play event
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 3 (Release date: 2009-09-15)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 3.5 (Release date: 2009-06-30)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 10.5 (Release date: 2010-03-02)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 3.1 (Release date: 2008-03-18)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 11 (Release date: 2011-03-22)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 3 (Release date: 2009-06-17)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 3 (Release date: 2009-06-17)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also