1919160 - Stop reporting facingMode on mac laptops and desktops

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: WebRTC: Audio/Video, defect)

Description

[Jan-Ivar Bruaroey [:jib] (needinfo? me)]

STRs: On a macOS laptop, type this into web console:

"facingMode" in (await navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({video: true})).getVideoTracks()[0].getSettings()

Expected result (Chrome and Safari*):

• false

Actual result (Firefox):

• true

This comes from the following code which I thought clever many years ago:

#ifdef XP_MACOSX
  // Kludge to test user-facing cameras on OSX.
  if (aDeviceName.Find(u"Face"_ns) != -1) {
    return Some(VideoFacingModeEnum::User);
  }
#endif

Since MBP cameras tend to be branded "FaceTime HD Camera", and are built-in to laptops, we know they're technically user-facing, and conveniently have the word "Face" in them.

In hindsight, I think this was a mistake, because:

1. other browsers aren't doing it,
2. seems arbitrary and inconsistent with Windows and Linux, and
3. it trips up websites using facingMode (in getSettings() or getCapabilities()) to detect "this is a mobile browser" (phone or pad)

I think it would be better to remove this code I think, and leave facingMode to be a "mobile" property of devices with front and back cameras.

Not a regression.

Comment 1

[Dan Baker[:dbaker]]

Attachment: Bug 1919160 - Stop reporting facingMode on mac laptops and desktops;r?jib

Comment 2

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/247e6d9d4524
Stop reporting facingMode on mac laptops and desktops;r=jib

Comment 3

[Norisz Fay [:noriszfay]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/247e6d9d4524