VLC gains support for the Apple Watch and a new mini-player

Versatile media player VLC has released an update, adding support for the Apple Watch, which lets you start and control playback of your audio and video files from your wrist. It has also added a mini-player to let you browse your collection during playback, and support for looping playlists.

In addition to new features like Apple Watch support, this update also fixes a number of bugs and issues that have cropped up in the app. You can check out the details on the additions in the list below:

  • Added support for Apple Watch - control VLC from your watch!
    • playback control
    • media info
    • library browsing
  • Added mini-player to browse the library during playback
  • Added support for looping playlists
  • New ingest mechanism for audio files
  • Improved remote command support
  • Improved thumbnail generation
  • Improved thumbnail and web interface performance on devices with A5 SoC and above
  • Fixed crash when playing media from a folder or music album on iPad
  • Fixed crash when app goes to background while a video is playing
  • Fixed privacy leak when using a passcode to protect the library
  • Removed stray popup announcing VLC's crash all the time while it actually didn't crash before, but terminated by the user
  • Added support for password-protected PLEX shares
  • Thumbnails displayed in the media library are updated to the last playback position
  • Improved reliability when sharing media library on the local network
  • Improved media library search delivering more accurate results
  • Fixed 'crop to fill screen' on iPad
  • Fixed issue which prevented downloading of a few files via UPnP
  • Fixed crash when screen is being locked during playback
  • A large number of bug fixes affecting most parts of the app

VLC 2.6 for iPhone and iPad is available for download right now from the App Store.

Joseph Keller

Joseph Keller is the former Editor in Chief of iMore. An Apple user for almost 20 years, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.