iOS and Mac users will soon be able to cast videos to their TVs via VLC.
VLC is a wildly popular and free video player. It has a long history on desktops, but it’s usefulness on iOS will now be even higher as soon as VLC 3.0 is released.
Previously, users wanting to cast to their TVs via Chromecast would have to rely on individual services being compatible on iOS. Whereas on desktops, users could use Google Cast – a Chrome extension that’s still in beta, and not entirely reliable.
However, on desktop VLC is a standalone video player that can play files. Using Google Cast to get around this, users could drop a video file into an empty tab on Chrome, and then cast the tab using the extension – but Chrome doesn’t reliably play as many files as VLC.
Apps have previously tried to make casting easier. One recent example is AllCast – a review of which you can read here – but while that had its shortcomings, we’re pretty excited to see how VLC can help iOS users to stream content from their phones to their TV.
There’s not a release date for VLC 3.0 yet, but it’s likely to be soon – in the meantime, if you’re in the US you can grab the current VLC for iOS app from the App Store.