Update 7/28, 12:14 PM CT: Huawei is now negotiating with VideoLAN over a possible solution.
If you have bought any modern Android-powered phone from Huawei—or its subdivision Honor—chances are high that you experienced some of Huawei’s additions to the OS in the form of its own skin dubbed as EMUI. Some of these changes are highly appreciable and add more convenience to the user experience, be it some changes to the UI or extra functionality over what the so-called stock Android baseline provides. Other changes might not be so appreciated, among which is Huawei’s own vision of how to manage the running background apps.
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
Basically, Huawei shares the belief with its fellow China-based competing OEMs that axing background apps as soon as they go dormant could save the user more battery since it prevents poorly coded apps from going rogue and sipping more juice than they should. Unfortunately, Huawei may have gotten a bit overboard with the idea of controlling the background apps, affecting the experience of the valued end user when using some apps that involve background media playback. One of the affected apps is the famous media player app VLC. And in an attempt to protest against Huawei’s aggressive management of VideoLabs’ app, modern Huawei phones have been restricted from having VLC installed via the Google Play Store until the issue is resolved. According to the official Twitter account, Huawei’s obnoxiously aggressive RAM management breaks VLC’s audio background playback functionality, which causes a lot of inconveniences to their users who have already shown their displeasure on the forums of VideoLAN.
Those who still wish to install VLC on their Huawei/Honor devices can download the APK from APKMirror, though they will not be guaranteed the best user experience VideoLabs wish for their users.
Update 7/28, 12:14 PM CT: VideoLan recently tweeted the following:
We finally got an answer from Huawei.
We hope to find a solution on this, in the next few weeks… https://t.co/8YWU3uHBvZ— VideoLAN (@videolan) July 26, 2018
End of Update
Source: Twitter (@videolan)
