Since its launch 20 years ago, the free and open source media player has been downloaded more than 3.5 billion times across the VLC platform. To celebrate the incredible achievement, VLC developer and chairman of the VideoLAN Foundation, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, reveals that the popular media player is ready to launch a major update in 2021 with a new UI.
In an interview with Protocol, Kempf revealed that the new UI will be part of VLC 4.0, which will be released later this year. “We changed the interface to be a little more modern,” Kempf said. Protocol. Unfortunately, Kempf did not elaborate much more than the design of the release.
The upgrade will also include integration with more online content directly into the app, but in a very “VLC-like” way, according to Kempf. “Instead of giving everyone the same video catalog, VLC gets extensions to pull in third-party content,” Protocol explained. “Still, Kempf left the door open to eventually also add ad-supported videos that could provide financial support to the project.”
In addition, Kempf has revealed that VLC is also getting a new version for the Internet. The VideoLAN team is working on a version powered by WebAssembly and JavaScript. The app previously had a web plugin that worked similarly to Flash and is no longer supported by most modern browsers. By the way, Flash is also a product of a bygone era.
Finally, Kempf said that VideoLAN is working on a new initiative called Moviepedia Project, which is described as a ‘kind of IMDb competitor’ and will include editing the community style in Wikipedia.
It’s unclear when VLC 4.0 will be available or when Moviepedia Project will launch, but with Kempf sharing some details, it will hopefully appear sooner rather than later.
The news about a major VLC update comes in a much bigger, very fascinating look of Protocol in the history of VLC as one of the most popular open source projects. As soon as more information is announced, we will assure you.