If you’ve ever looked for a video player to handle videos in a format that your gallery can’t play, you’ve probably come across VLC. This open source application developed by VideoLAN has not been updated since summer 2023; This is a big problem, if not reversed it could mean the app disappears from the Play Store (not the APK repositories) in the medium term.

What is VLC?. VLC is a free and open source multimedia player. It works on almost all platforms as it is compatible with Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows.

One of the main advantages it has is that it is compatible with the vast majority of video formats, making it much more versatile than the default player on our mobile phone or computer. VideoLAN is a non-profit organization and all development costs are covered by donations received from its users. There is no advertising, no payment required for the use of this application.

Not updated since last year. VLC has not been updated on Android since August 2023. This is not good news. The platform has been supporting Android devices for 14 years, but according to developers, Google is not making it easy for them.

It is necessary to comply with Google policy to update an app on Play Store. Not only in the release of the application, but also in each of its updates. What happens in the case of VLC is that if they want to continue maintaining support, they have to meet certain conditions that they did not agree to.

Developer complaints. VideoLAN announced on its social networks Why can’t they update? Your app on Android. The main reason they show it is because Google requires them to provide private signing keys for their apps.

Losing the privilege of these keys would mean losing full control over VLC, something VideoLAN is not willing to do. This drama with buttons mainly affects devices with Android TV. A significant portion of VLC users are still using older versions of Android 10 and below. To update devices of this type, credentials must be transferred.

The only solution is to say goodbye to old devices. If VideoLAN does not want to give up the switches, there is only one solution: saying goodbye to devices with Android 10 and lower versions. This is a good chunk of the VLC user base so the solution isn’t very feasible.

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