VLC for iOS now supports Touch ID, Spotlight, iPad multitasking and more

VLC for Mobile, the iOS edition of the popular multi-platform media player developed by VideoLAN, is offering you a nice gift this holiday season in the form of a major update that delivers a number of new features and improvements.

Integration with Apple’s latest technologies

Perhaps most notably, the latest update to VLC for Mobile enables integration with several of the technologies currently implemented by Apple.

First off, VLC now allows you to unlock the app using your fingerprint with Touch ID, in lieu of manually entering your four-digit passcode.

VLC now also lets you search and get to your files in the app directly from the home screen of your iOS device using Spotlight. Note, though, that Spotlight returns results only for files that you’ve previously played in VLC, not for all files that are in the app.

The new version of VLC also boasts support for multitasking on iPad. On iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 2 or later, you can use Slide Over to view VLC over another app. And on iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 4, you can use Split View to view VLC side by side with another app at the same time, like when you want to read up on the “Rocky” spinoff “Creed” on Google while watching the original “Rocky” on VLC.

The latest update to VLC also upgrades the app’s official extension for the Apple Watch to watchOS 2.

If you can’t see the demo embedded above, please click here.

Playback and gesture configurations

VLC for Mobile has also just gained new settings that allow you to configure playback continuation and gestures.

Now, you can set audio or video playback to never continue, always continue, or ask to continue.

Also, you can now configure how you can control playback using gestures. You can choose to enable or disable the following gestures: swipe up/down for volume, tap to play/pause, swipe up/down for brightness, swipe right/left to seek (with optional variable jump duration), and pinch to close.

More tweaks

The latest update to VLC for Mobile also includes the following tweaks:

• Added support for SMB file sharing
• Media stored in folders on remote servers is now played as a list
• Reworked networking UI
• Added improved UI support for Right-to-Left languages
• Added support for music albums with more than 1 disk
• Display chapter duration in playback UI
• Recently played network stream URL are now shared across all devices
• Stored login information is now shared across all devices
• Cloud login credentials are now shared across all devices

Apple TV support coming soon

The new version of VLC for Mobile is available now on the App Store for free. It’s compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 7.0 or later.

VLC for Apple TV has already been submitted for review, and should be coming out as soon as Apple approves it for release.

VLC has long been my media player of choice. Even though it’s free to download and use, it’s packed with a great many useful features, which have once again grown in number with the app’s new update.

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