signalapp / signalapp/Signal-Android
Video received from an iOS contact plays as a black screen with audio
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- Dominant language
- Kotlin
- Stars
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Description
- I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
- I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
- I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
- This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic
Bug description
2 members in a group chat using Signal for Android couldn’t play a video sent by a different group member using Signal for iOS.
On Android, the video thumbnail rendered very dark in the chat. Pressing “play” opened up a video clip which was a black screen for the entire duration of the video. The audio track played as expected.
The video plays fine in the android “gallery” app though when saved to device.
Steps to reproduce
- save this video to your Android device: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y0NYDCvLHYzUbLr86py33VKna6aWlZjy/view?usp=drivesdk
- Send this video to “note to self” on Signal Android via the in-app gallery
- press play
Actual result:
Dark thumbnail. Pressing “play” launches a video player with the video appearing as a black screen for the full duration of the video.
Expected result:
Video plays as expected
Screenshots


Device info
Device: Samsung Galaxy A50
Android version: 11
Signal version: 5.47.3
Link to debug log
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the failure with the linked video using Signal Android 5.47.3 on the reported Samsung Galaxy A50 and review the linked debug log. Compare in-app playback with playback in the Android gallery; the issue is done when the video renders its picture while preserving the expected audio.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- android, kotlin
- Domain
- mobile-dev
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100