1--- 2title: Pros and cons 3--- 4 5ExoPlayer has a number of advantages over Android's built in MediaPlayer: 6 7* Fewer device specific issues and less variation in behavior across different 8 devices and versions of Android. 9* The ability to update the player along with your application. Because 10 ExoPlayer is a library that you include in your application apk, you have 11 control over which version you use and you can easily update to a newer 12 version as part of a regular application update. 13* The ability to [customize and extend the player][] to suit your use case. 14 ExoPlayer is designed specifically with this in mind, and allows many 15 components to be replaced with custom implementations. 16* Support for [playlists][]. 17* Support for [DASH][] and [SmoothStreaming][], neither of which are supported 18 by MediaPlayer. Many other formats are also supported. See the [Supported 19 formats page][] for details. 20* Support for advanced [HLS][] features, such as correct handling of 21 `#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY` tags. 22* Support for [Widevine common encryption][] on Android 4.4 (API level 19) and 23 higher. 24* The ability to quickly integrate with a number of additional libraries using 25 official extensions. For example the [IMA extension][] makes it easy to 26 monetize your content using the [Interactive Media Ads SDK][]. 27 28It's important to note that there are also some disadvantages: 29 30* For audio only playback on some devices, ExoPlayer may consume significantly 31 more battery than MediaPlayer. See the [Battery consumption page][] for 32 details. 33* Including ExoPlayer in your app adds a few hundred kilobytes to the APK size. 34 This is likely only a concern for extremely lightweight apps. Guidance for 35 shrinking ExoPlayer can be found on the [APK shrinking page][]. 36 37[Supported formats page]: {{ site.baseurl }}/supported-formats.html 38[IMA extension]: {{ site.release_v2 }}/extensions/ima 39[Interactive Media Ads SDK]: https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads 40[Battery consumption page]: {{ site.baseurl }}/battery-consumption.html 41[customize and extend the player]: {{ site.baseurl }}/customization.html 42[APK shrinking page]: {{ site.baseurl }}/shrinking.html 43[playlists]: {{ site.baseurl }}/playlists.html 44[DASH]: {{ site.baseurl }}/dash.html 45[SmoothStreaming]: {{ site.baseurl }}/smoothstreaming.html 46[HLS]: {{ site.baseurl }}/hls.html 47[Widevine common encryption]: {{ site.baseurl }}/drm.html 48