VLC bans Huawei phones from downloading its app after users started leaving bad reviews

Company blames Huawei devices’ “ridiculous” policy of killing background apps

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VLC bans Huawei phones from downloading its app after users started leaving bad reviews

Andrew Barclay

Published: 7:41pm, 26 Jul 2018Updated: 8:33am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

VLC -- a popular free and open-source media player -- will no longer be available for download on new Huawei devices, after the company behind the popular software blacklisted their phones.

VLC’s parent company VideoLAN said the decision came after a number of VLC users started leaving negative reviews on the Play Store complaining of “audio playback issues”.

And while those consumers seemed to blame VLC -- VideoLAN said it was actually the Chinese smartphone maker’s “ridiculous policy of killing all background apps” that was at fault.

So far it appears the ban affects the P10, P8 and P20.

All smartphone phone manufacturers try to extend battery life on their devices by limiting how much background apps are able to use battery power. But Huawei’s latest devices have an extra aggressive design that kills all background apps whenever they can -- meaning those trying to listen to music in the background are finding the app close in an attempt to save battery.

Those looking for a workaround are in luck: VLC can still be downloaded directly from the VideoLAN site.

And given the reaction on social media, it’s also possible Huawei might release an update to solve the issue.