VLC is now a true Universal App across all of Windows

VideoLAN is likely one of the best builders of quality apps for the Windows Store, and while the development team provides frequent updates to the desktop version of their VLC media player, they usually take their time with the apps. That is not necessarily a bad thing, and today's news is going to explain that long wait.

Thomas Nigro, the lead developer behind the Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 versions of VLC, has announced that VLC has been updated for the two platforms. Furthermore, VLC is now a true Universal App, and is also compatible with Windows 10.

Thomas explained that they are currently sharing 80% of the XAML code and over 95% of the C# code between the projects for different platforms, which is one of the main advantages of developing universal apps, along with providing users with the same core experience across all devices. It will also allow the team to provide updates and bug-fixes for both platforms at the same time.

Here's what's new in VLC for Windows 8.1/10:

Creating a playlist, editing a playlist (early support though)
Your videos are displayed in three categories: videos, camera rolls and shows. We automatically detect if a video is an episode of a show.
You can see the upcoming shows of an artist
Social sharing (« #NowPlaying Shake It Off – Taylor Swift »)

Thomas mentions that there are hundreds of bugfixes, and that you should now be able to open a video from Windows Explorer without any problems, as well as resize it to your liking without experiencing unusual behaviors. You'll probably notice that DLNA support and the ability to change album covers is gone, but they will make a comeback in a future update.

The Windows Phone app update consists of various bugfixes, and Thomas said there's a big update coming in the next couple of months that will enable Direct3D rendering and hardware decoding. You can grab the new VLC app from the links below:

Source: Thomas Nigro