VLC

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffNovember 10, 2018VLC for Android is a must-have video player to watch almost any video or audio file you have on your phone. It handles a wide range of multimedia files, it's powerful yet easy to use, and perhaps, best of all, it's a free download.ProsHandles a broad range of formats: The VLC player for Android can play most video and audio formats -- including MP4, AVI, Ogg, FLAC, and AAC -- and is the app to turn to if you can't open a multimedia file with your current player. To tweak playback, the app includes a built-in equalizer you can control by dragging sliders. Handy interface: VLC's playback window does a nice job of displaying the video title, total and remaining time, subtitle tracks, and more. By swiping on different parts of the screen, you can adjust brightness, volume, and playback, as well as navigate through your files. View or browse files on your device: In the app's browser view, you can see all the videos on your device, individually and grouped by name. If you'd rather browse for a multimedia file, you can use VLC's built-in file explorer to navigate through the folders on your device.Free and open source: VLC is available as a free download on Android and iPhone devices, Mac and Windows, and Linux. The software is open source, which explains in part why other video players in the Google Play store closely resemble VLC. SEE: The Best Mobile Apps for Watching VideoConsChromecast not supported: VideoLAN Project, the developer of VLC, said it is working on the ability to stream via Chromecast. The company, however, has been promising support for at least three years. Bottom LineThe VLC player for Android handles a wide variety of multimedia formats, does a great job of helping you navigate through folders, lets you control playback with gestures, and offers a surprisingly rich collection of tools for setting the quality of audio and video playback. You might be able to find a better free multimedia player than VLC, but we're not sure it would be worth the effort.