VLC is a popular media player solution that covers a wide range of different media types, and it works well, which are both prominent reasons why it has become a popular choice for those looking to play their movies or TV shows from their own personal digital library. VLC has been available on Windows machines for years, and it’s also available on other platforms like Ubuntu and Mac OSX, as well as more recently launched Android and iOS apps so users can take their media on the go with their favorite player. Now, VLC has made their app available to another major computing platform, Google’s Chrome OS.
Why it’s taken this long to get VLC working on devices like Chromebooks and Chrome boxes is anyone’s guess, but the reasons of why likely aren’t going to mean much now to those who can finally take advantage of it. To put things into perspective though, VLC is the most popular media player solution on a global scale, which makes it a little more surprising that it didn’t make it to Chrome OS sooner, especially with the boom in popularity of Chromebooks and other Chrome OS devices over the last couple of years. What’s more, is that it continues to be a free app and will cost Chrome OS users nothing to install.
With Chrome OS being primarily a cloud-driven platform and all of the available apps being web apps, this has likely played a significant role in why VLC has taken longer to get up and running on Google’s desktop computing OS than other platforms . With any other operating system, VLC is a native, downloadable app or program that can be installed, which isn’t the case for Chrome OS devices. Thanks to Google’s ARC solution in recent times though, VideoLAN was able to port the Android version of the VLC app to Chrome OS as ARC allows you to run Android apps on a desktop. The even better news beyond the fact that Chromebook users can now access one of the best video players out there is that all video files are supported, leaving no stone unturned so to speak. All audio files are also supported, and the media database is akin to Android so those who have used the Android app should be familiar with selecting the right media for resuming playback. VLC on Chrome OS is in the Chrome App Store as of now if you’re looking to pick up.