VLC Universal Windows App for Windows 10 in closed beta

We posted last week that VLC would be releasing their universal app imminently.

We of course saw neither hide nor hair of it, but it turns out the app is currently in closed beta.

According to an update posted by the VLC head developer J B Kempf development is proceeding apace, and the eventual result is looking to be just about as powerful as the older Win32 app.

He writes:

The WinRT port was extremely busy, these past two weeks.

Indeed, we are preparing a beta version named 1.9.0, that would prepare for the first true UWP version, that will be named 2.0.0.

We’ve added most of the features that you usually see on the Android and iOS versions of VLC, notablyUPnP and network shares browsing, support for HTTPS and adaptive streaming, better hardware decoding, dialogs support, as many codecs as the desktop version, and so on.

Moreover, the engine use the runtime 12.0_app instead of the 11.0 one we used on the WinRT version.

On the UI side, we now support correctly Windows 10 integration, with Cortana, drag and drop, tablet mode and a lot of fixes so that the application looks responsive enough on all the devices, from mobileto the Xbox 1. We polished this UI and fixed a few important regressions, notably on the playback and the thumbnailer.

The application is currently in private beta mode, so that the biggest issues are fixed before opening it up.

The app will eventually be available for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Xbox One, and even Windows 10 IoT but in its first release will only be offered on Windows 10 desktop and then regularly updated.

It appears the public beta is still on the way, though without a specific date.