If you’re a Huawei Mobile phone owner, don’t be surprised if suddenly, you can’t use the VLC app on your unit. As it turned out, devices from the top Chinese 0EM have been blacklisted. This means you cannot download VLC from the Google Play Store. This is in response to their policy of killing background apps, resulting in the breaking of VLC audio background playback. We also learned about it on the VideoLAN Forums as some members shared the problem of VLC being paused when in dark screen or screensaver mode on their Huawei phones.
Others have also reported the same thing on their older Huawei phones running Android 8.0 Oreo and the VLC 3.0.1.1 installed. Apparently, VLC decided to blacklist Huawei phones. The public service announcement (PSA) was shared by VideoLAN over on Twitter.
VLC has always been a favorite of media player on Android and other platforms. It’s a personal favorite. Even if it’s not regularly updated, it still works with no problem. The app has several features many people find useful and convenient. It’s free and open source so we’re not surprised why the app reached more than 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store.
VLC for Android bans Huawei phones
Huawei handsets were banned by the VideoLAN project team. We don’t think all models are included. Specifically, the audio background playback function of VLC has been affected by Huawei’s policy. The app’s APK can still be downloaded if you wish to try and then install the app manually.
PSA: @HuaweiMobile phones are now blacklisted and cannot get VLC on the Play Store.
Their ridiculous policy of killing all background apps (except their own) breaks VLC audio background playback (of course).
See https://t.co/QzDW7KbV4I and many other reports…@HuaweiFr— VideoLAN (@videolan) July 25, 2018
VIA: VIDEOLan Forums
