VLC Player, the popular third-party video player for operating systems such as Windows and Android, has been facing an unexpected block in recent months. The VLC Android app, which has been downloaded more than 100 million times on the Google Play Store, has not received an update since last summer. Its developer blames Google.
Why isn’t the VLC Android app being updated?
VLC, short for VideoLAN Client, has been available on Android for over a decade. With more than 100 million downloads in the Play Store, it has become a staple app for many users. However, in recent months users have started complaining about the lack of updates.
The fact that it has not received an update in the Google Play Store since last summer attracted attention. The developer company VideoLAN made a new statement on the subject. Stating that they do not want to apply some restrictions imposed by Google, the developer stated that updates are not allowed.
VideoLAN made important statements to shed light on the impasse with Google. It said that Google wanted access to signing keys specific to the VLC app. But this could jeopardize the independent and open-source nature of the project.
For those who don’t know, signing keys are used to verify that app updates come from official sources. But handing them over to Google goes against VideoLAN’s principles.
Google also has requirements on Android APIs for apps to receive updates. Even though VLC provides updates to Android 11 and earlier Android TV versions, this causes some problems on Google’s side. VideoLAN said that there are tens of millions of people still using older Android TVs, which is why it prefers to give updates to older systems.
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