---
title: play()
framework: avfoundation
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Method
path: avfoundation/avplayer/play()
---

# play()

Begins playback of the current item.

## Declaration

```swift
nonisolated func play()
```

## Mentioned in

Controlling the transport behavior of a player

## Discussion

Discussion Calling this method is the same as setting the rate to 1.0. note: Before macOS 13, iOS 16, tvOS 16, and watchOS 9, you can only call this method on the main thread or queue.

## See Also

### Controlling playback

- [defaultRate](avfoundation/avplayer/defaultrate.md)
- [pause()](avfoundation/avplayer/pause().md)
- [rate](avfoundation/avplayer/rate.md)
- [rateDidChangeNotification](avfoundation/avplayer/ratedidchangenotification.md)
- [playheadReachedLiveEdge](avfoundation/avplayer/ratedidchangereason/playheadreachedliveedge.md)
- [reversePlaybackReachedStartOfSeekableRange](avfoundation/avplayer/ratedidchangereason/reverseplaybackreachedstartofseekablerange.md)