VLC 2.0 for Android just got a facelift that adds playlists, pop-up video, and more

VLC just got a pretty substantial update that brings aboard a slew of new features and improves on old standbys. The video-playing app hasn’t seen an update in over half a year (we were sitting on version 1.7.0 for forever), so it’s nice to see this fan favorite finally get a well-deserved refresh. What all do we have coming in this major release? Keep reading to find out.

Right off the top we’re getting the much-needed video playlist functionality, a feature that has long been a staple of the desktop version of VLC but was lacking from the Android app. The developers have also trimmed away all the unnecessary permissions that the app used to require. Now all it needs is access to media files, which is pretty par for the course when you’re running a media player. The app also now supports Android N runtime permissions.

Although it hasn’t been completely polished just yet, VLC now supports DLNA/UPnP, Windows Shares, FTP, SFTP, NFS protocols so you can browse networks a ease. Subtitle detection is built in, and – oh yeah – you can also now download subtitles from OpenSubtitles directly from within the app. Pop up video now lets you play content on what is essentially a window, making multitasking a breeze on supported devices. History is a feature that we used to have on VLC a long time ago in the Before Times, but for some reason the functionality was disabled. Well, now it’s back, so feel free to take a nostalgic stroll down the memory lane that is your view history.

A variety of other features have been tweaked and improved to varying degrees. Android TV’s UI has been substantially improved, for instance, and the Advanced Settings menu has been redesigned. Click the button below to grab the latest version of this media player from the Google Play Store, then let us know what you think of the facelift in the comments!