[dev-platform] Intent to unship: disable 'media.hls.enable' on Android

[John Lin]

GeckoView supports HLS content playback using a third-party library[1], and we’re considering stopping it for the following reasons:

- it needs continuous maintenance efforts. Recently, Google replaced the library (ExoPlayer) with a new one (Media3) and recommended that existing users migrate to it [2]

- it requires additional work to support ORB [3]

- Many websites already use hls.js[4] to play HLS content in desktop browsers, and it works on Android too

No final decision has been made yet, but we’ve been running experiments to stop reporting HLS support in Fenix[5] and monitoring user feedback to see if this impacts the experience.

The works are tracking in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1896931

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=577084

[2] https://developer.android.com/media/media3/exoplayer/migration-guide

[3] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1778430

[4] https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js

[5] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1896932