Alternative to getUserMedia() for reading live camera stream on iOS?

Question

We are building a mobile barcode-scanner using QuaggaJS that reads barcodes directly from the device's camera stream. Works fine on desktop/Android, but doesn't work at all on iOS.

From initial research, I've found that iOS simply does not support WebRTC/getUserMedia through Safari or iOS Chrome (related links below), which is what QuaggaJS uses to read the camera stream.

I've also seen this question about capturing a still image on iOS, but the answer provided is only for capturing a still image, not for reading the stream real-time.

My question - is there any other way to grab the stream from an iOS camera? Perhaps an alternate library other than QuaggaJS that does not use getUserMedia? I am not well-versed in Javascript, so I am not sure if there even is a possible way to access the camera stream other than getUserMedia.

A "no" is an acceptable answer here; I'm simply looking for someone more experienced to provide guidance.

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Appendix/related links:

navigator.getUserMedia alternative API for iOS safari mobile browser?

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-navigator-getUserMedia-not-supported-in-Safari

https://bloggeek.me/webrtc-apple-or-microsoft/

HTML5: getUserMedia iOS issue?

Solution 1

2017 update: Apple just announced that getUserMedia will finally be supported in iOS11.

Aug 2019 update: ONLY works in Safari, not in a WebView of any kind. Thanks @Klathmon for the comment.

Solution 2

The quaggaJS page has a feature compatibility matrix which answers your question:

getusermedia is not supported on iOS safari.

As per the quaggaJS documentation (https://github.com/serratus/quaggaJS#browser-support)

Quagga makes use of many modern Web-APIs which are not implemented by all browsers yet. There are two modes in which Quagga operates:

1. analyzing static images and

2. using a camera to decode the images from a live-stream. The latter requires the presence of the MediaDevices API. You can track the compatibility of the used Web-APIs for each mode:

   • Static Images
   • Live Stream

I would suggest that you use static image mode on iOS as live stream mode is not supported.

Comments

[Tejas Tank]

iOS no upgraded, iphone uesless with browser based growing application. Android doign perfectly great job.

[manishg]

I didn't get you

[Tejas Tank]

I mean, iPhone poor for getusermedia.

[manishg]

Getusermedia is from Webrtc which is heavily backed by google that's why safari isn't supporting the same. May be apple will create its own flavor.

[Tejas Tank]

Ya, apple is slow growing where google is fast adopiting. iPhone hold many issues for no reason.

[Klathmon]

However it ONLY works in Safari, not in a WebView of any kind. Don't get most of the way through an implementation only to have to scrap the whole project like I did!