How to disable automatic updates to MPNowPlayingInfoCenter from AVPlayer

I’m building a SwiftUI app whose primary job is to play audio. I manage all of the Now-Playing metadata and Command center manually via the available shared instances:

MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo

In certain parts of the app I also need to display videos, but as soon as I attach another AVPlayer, it automatically pushes its own metadata into the Control Center and overwrites my audio info.

What I need: a way to show video inline without ever having that video player update the system’s Now-Playing info (or Control Center).

In my app, I start by configuring the shared audio session

        do {
            try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback,
                                                            mode: .default,
                                                            options: [
                                                                .allowAirPlay,
                                                                .allowBluetoothA2DP
                                                            ])
            try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
        } catch {
            NSLog("%@", "**** Failed to set up AVAudioSession \(error.localizedDescription)")
        }

and then set the MPRemoteCommandCenter commands and MPNowPlayingInfoCenter nowPlayingInfo like mentioned above.

All this works without any issues as long as I only have one AVPlayer in my app. But when I add other AVPlayers to display some videos (and keep the main AVPlayer for the sound) they push undesired updates to MPNowPlayingInfoCenter:

struct VideoCardView: View {
    @State private var player: AVPlayer
        
    let videoName: String

    init(player: AVPlayer = AVPlayer(), videoName: String) {
        self.player = player
        self.videoName = videoName
        guard let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: videoName, ofType: nil) else { return }
        let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: path)
        let item = AVPlayerItem(url: url)
        self.player.replaceCurrentItem(with: item)
    }
        
    var body: some View {
        VideoPlayer(player: player)
            .aspectRatio(contentMode: .fill)
            .onAppear {
                player.isMuted = true
                player.allowsExternalPlayback = false
                player.actionAtItemEnd = .none
                player.play()
                
                MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = nil
                MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().playbackState = .stopped

                NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: .AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime,
                                                       object: player.currentItem,
                                                       queue: .main) { notification in
                    guard let finishedItem = notification.object as? AVPlayerItem,
                              finishedItem === player.currentItem else { return }
                    player.seek(to: .zero)
                    player.play()
                }
            }
            .onDisappear {
                player.pause()
            }
    }
}

Which is why I tried adding:

MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = nil
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().playbackState = .stopped // or .interrupted, .unknown

But that didn't work.

I also tried making a wrapper around the AVPlayerViewController in order to set updatesNowPlayingInfoCenter to false, but that didn’t work either:

struct CustomAVPlayerView: UIViewControllerRepresentable {
    let player: AVPlayer

    func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> AVPlayerViewController {
        let vc = AVPlayerViewController()
        vc.player = player
        vc.updatesNowPlayingInfoCenter = false
        vc.showsPlaybackControls = false
        return vc
    }

    func updateUIViewController(_ controller: AVPlayerViewController, context: Context) {
        controller.player = player
    }
}

Hence any help on how to embed video in SwiftUI without its AVPlayer touching MPNowPlayingInfoCenter would be greatly appreciated.

All this was tested on an actual device with iOS 18.4.1, and built with Xcode 16.2 on macOS 15.5