The first public beta of VLC for iOS 4.0 is here, and it’s the largest update the app has seen in years. It spans iOS, iPadOS and tvOS.
A new engine underneath
The headline change is invisible at first glance: the whole app now sits on a pre-release build of libVLC 4. That means a new clock implementation, a rewritten player and a new playlist core. This is the foundation for most of the user-facing features below.
Two platform notes up front: VLC for iOS now requires iOS 12 or later, and 32-bit devices are no longer supported. On the Apple TV side, tvOS 13 or later is required.
Playback
- HDR playback, multi-channel and spatial audio, and Picture-in-Picture on iOS.
- Dual subtitles
- A redesigned audio player on iOS
- Seek with the number keys on an external keyboard, use your gamepad to control VLC, and an option to force the video orientation lock.
- Major accessibility improvements throughout the playback interface.
Codecs, formats and protocols
libVLC 4 brings a fresh batch of demuxers and decoders:
- New decoders: IMM4, CEA-708, AGM, VP4.
- New format support: HEIF images, DASH WebM, DVBSUB in MKV, chapters in MP3 files, and DMX audio.
- New protocols: RIST, AMT and Gopher, plus improved proxy handling.
- The Real player dialect of RTSP has been removed.
Interface and library
- iPadOS gains sidebar navigation, and the whole app starts to adopt the iOS 26 “Liquid Glass” appearance
- A home-screen widget showing the last played audio and an App Intent to start playback (iOS 16.4 and later) for Siri and Shortcuts.
- “Kids Mode” — parental control that prevents accidental deletions and modifications — plus passcodes with four or six digits.
- Media library additions: pagination while browsing, “Mark as Played”/“Mark as Unplayed”, section indexes and headers in song lists, video previews, and import straight from the Photos library.
- iCloud Drive and local files are now unified into a single browsing section, and Open Network Stream as well as the Downloads section got a redesigned interface.
- Cloud services: pCloud integration, folder downloads and favorites, and thumbnails for Dropbox and Box.
- The web interface has been redesigned.
tvOS
The Apple TV port shares all the lower-level libVLC 4 work and gets its own redesign: the player now matches the current appearance of the OS, with a play queue, shuffle/repeat controls, secondary subtitle selection, granular speed control and an inline info panel. tvOS also gains the local media library. The discontinued S/PDIF option has been removed.
Known issues
This is an early test build — it is not finished and not feature-complete. Two things to watch for:
- Picture-in-Picture is currently offered on some devices where it isn’t actually supported.
- Google Drive streaming is broken.
Install it via TestFlight, try it on your own library, and tell us what breaks: