It’s been a long trek since VLC launched version 1.0 on Google Play back in 2014, but today they’ve announced version 2.0 is now available for download and its a major update with new features all round.
There’s headline features all through the release, which supports android version all the way from Android 2.2 up to Android N (7.0?). Android N permissions have been scaled back in this release to use less ‘dangerous permissions’ with the only remaining one being ‘access to media files’, a permission you expect of your media player – but that will now come up as a runtime permission on Android N.
Also updated is the network playback ability with support for DLNA/UPnP, Windows Shares, FTP(S), SFTP and NFS network shares now available. Subtitles can also be called over a network or downloaded from OpenSubtitles without using a website.
A new feature which is useful in the era of bingewatching is a video playlist function which is now supported.
VLC 2.0 also adds the option to use the video player as a pop-up window with support for Samsung MultiWindow and LG Dual Window extensions also included so you can run two applications on the same screen.
VLC 2.0 will also add better support for Right-to-Left and Complex Text Layout subtitles. The history feature that was present in earlier versions is now back and you’ll see better Advanced options as well as simplified landscape/portrait modes.
Finally, the VLC team has managed to merge the Android TV and Android interface into one package, meaning that you can now select the Android TV interface from settings if you want it.
If you love VLC, the update is now available in the Google Play store so head over and grab it now.
