Earlier this year in March, the developers behind the popular VLC media player released VLC 3.3.0 beta for Android. The beta update introduced a completely redesigned UI with a bottom navigation bar, better support for Android's gesture navigation, and several new UI tricks and animations to make the app feel more native. Now, the developers have started rolling out VLC 3.3 on the Play Store, which brings all of these changes and more to the stable channel.
As per a recent blog post, VLC 3.3 for Android brings a new UI that's more in line with Google's Material Design specifications and it features a bottom navigation bar for easier access to the controls. The dark mode in the app has been improved to display a completely black theme and the app icon has also been updated. The audio player has also been updated to show the overall progress of your play queue, while the video player has been redesigned to give it a more modern look.
The lock player feature in the video player has also been improved and you can now lock your orientation from the controls or lock the whole screen from the advanced options.
Additionally, all the different audio tracks for a video can now be changed in one place and the subtitle download has been revamped to give users a more streamlined experience.
Furthermore, there's a brand new interface to sync the audio and subtitle tracks which will let you easily fine-tune both tracks to play them in sync. The AB repeat feature has also been redone from scratch to make it easier to use.
The post further notes that all these aforementioned changes will be available on Android TV as well, which has received some additional improvements. For instance, you'll now be able to display all of the browsing screens in a list instead of a grid to get a more compact view on your TV. DVD and Blu Ray support have also been improved, and the app will now save your current progress while playing such media.
Along with these player improvements. VLC for Android now also has a Sponsorship option which will let you sponsor the developers to help them further improve the app.
The app now also has a custom grouping feature for videos that will let you create groups for all the videos on your device for easier access. Other noteworthy changes include media sharing support, real-time video stats, cleaner app settings, and Android 11 compatibility. For more information on under the hood changes, you can check out the original blog post linked below.
Source: Dev.to