VLC 4.0 with new UI coming later this year

The 20-year old VLC player is getting a major revamp this year.

VLC player (VLC)

VLC is planning a major upgrade this year with a new UI and a new web version. The new UI will be part of VLC 4.0 that is set to release later this year. The cross-platform media player has been downloaded over 3.5 billion times in its 20 years of existence. The app also gets between 800,000 and 1 million downloads every day.

VideoLAN foundation President Jean-Baptiste Kempf in an interview with Protocol shared plans for VLC's upcoming update. The team at VideoLAN is working on integrating more content directly into the VLC app similar to what Plex and its ad-supported video services provide. VLC plans to bring more third-party content using extensions.

"We modified the interface to be a bit more modern," Kempf was quoted as saying by Protocol.

In addition to a new UI, the VideoLAN team is also working on an improved web version of VLC. The new version will use WebAssembly and JavaScript instead of a web plug-in to make the video player run smoother inside web pages. It should be able to play “any type of movie right inside your web browser” according to Kempf. There's another product in the works which will have an IMDb-like database that can be edited by users similar to Wikipedia.

Kempf also shared plans for VLC's 20th year celebrations. The VLC team plans to put a video time capsule aboard the first commercial lunar spaceflight. The time capsule will feature videos from VLC users, and key videos that highlight VLC's journey. There's no specific date for the release of VLC 4.0 but it's interesting to see what the age-old video player will look like in its new avatar.