# UI on Android

Choose the approach that fits your requirements:

* Use Open Video UI when you want a custom experience without building common player components yourself.
* Use the chromeless player when you want to start with no UI and build every control and interaction from scratch.
* Use the basic default UI when its ready-made controls meet your needs and one is available.

| Approach      | Starting point                 | Flexibility | Development effort |
| ------------- | ------------------------------ | ----------- | ------------------ |
| Open Video UI | Ready-made, modular components | High        | Moderate           |
| Chromeless    | Player API without a UI        | Complete    | Highest            |
| Default UI    | Complete basic player UI       | Basic       | Lowest             |

Building a chromeless UI means using the OptiView Player API and your own application code without a ready-made UI. You are responsible for adding every control, such as a play button, and connecting it to the player API, such as `player.play()`. This approach gives you total control over the UI and UX, but requires an understanding of video playback and the OptiView Player API.

## Open Video UI

Use [Open Video UI for Android](https://docs-preview.optiview.dolby.com/pr-873/theoplayer/how-to-guides/android/ui/open-video-ui.md) to customize the player with ready-made, open-source components that you can use as is or compose and style to match your application.

If you're building a React Native application, use [Open Video UI for React Native](https://docs-preview.optiview.dolby.com/pr-873/theoplayer/how-to-guides/react-native/ui/open-video-ui.md) instead.

## Chromeless

For complete control, you can start without a UI and build every control and interaction with the native technologies and programming languages of the platform. The THEOplayer API exposes all the events and properties that you need to implement a custom design from scratch.

Refer to our article on [how to build a chromeless UI](https://docs-preview.optiview.dolby.com/pr-873/theoplayer/how-to-guides/android/ui/build-chromeless-ui.md) for more information.

## Default UI

As of THEOplayer 5, the Android SDK no longer ships a default UI.

## Related articles

* [How to change how a video should fit inside a container](https://docs-preview.optiview.dolby.com/pr-873/theoplayer/how-to-guides/android/ui/change-video-fit.md)