The popular VLC media player will bring AirPlay support to its Android app in a future update.
It’s been confirmed by one of the app’s lead developers, Jean-Baptiste Kempf (via Variety).
Kempf also shared some of the roadmap for VLC with Variety, which includes implementing AirPlay. This will make it possible for Android users to beam videos from their mobile devices to Apple TVs. Kempf said that AirPlay support could make it to the main VLC app in about a month.
I think he is talking about official support, not a hack or reverse engineering.
VLC is the extremely popular cross-platform media player—it’s expected to surpass three billion downloads some time tomorrow afternoon, Kampf said. By conventional logic, they would hardly risk legal action with unlicensed use of proprietary AirPlay technology.
It’s difficult to say whether they’ve obtained official license from Apple to implement AirPlay support in the Android app. At any rate, this is undoubtedly an interesting development.
It wouldn’t be the first time Apple licensed Airplay on Android, however.
In 2016, it licensed the feature to HTC which added AirPlay compatibility to select devices (including the One M7, One M8 and One M9 series) via an update to its Connect app. Apple has also been licensing AirPlay to audio equipment manufacturers for years.
Most recently, Apple licensed AirPlay 2 to TV makers ahead of a streaming-service debut.