VLC Is Blocking Recent Huawei Phones On The Play Store Alleging Aggressive Background App Management

Huawei has gotten bad press over the last week. On Saturday, Huawei stopped providing bootloader unlock codes for all its devices, and now some of the Chinese company's phones have been blacklisted by VLC on the Play Store.

VLC says that it received a lot of one-star ratings from Huawei users on the Play Store complaining that the app isn't able to play audio in the background. The open-source media player tweeted that Huawei's "ridiculous policy of killing all background apps (except their own) breaks VLC audio playback". Several Huawei users on the VLC forums confirmed that the audio playback works fine when the app optimization is disabled. The VLC team says not many people know about this workaround, and as a result, they end up putting the blame on the app. To combat poor reviews and disrepute, VLC has decided to blacklist the recent Huawei phones.

NB: Please note that this is not for all Huawei phones but just the recent ones.
NB2: You can always download the apk from our website.

— VideoLAN (@videolan) July 25, 2018

As mentioned in the tweet above, not all Huawei phones will be blocked. VLC has currently blocked three Huawei phones: the P8, the P10 and the P20. The users of these phones will no longer be able to either install or update the VLC app from the Play Store, however, they may continue using VLC by downloading its APK file.

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.