VLC for iOS returns by July 19, re-written from the ground up and fully open-sourced (Update: It's here)
VideoLAN revealed some very exciting news today: VLC for iOS will be back in Apple's App Store by tomorrow (July 19). The company tells TNW the app will be available for free worldwide …
Context & Ripple Effects
VLC disappeared from Apple's App Store in January 2011, when VideoLAN's flagship player was pulled from the App Store — leaving iOS without one of the best-known open-source media players. Today's announcement closes that gap: the app returns by July 19, rebuilt from scratch rather than patched, and this time shipped with its full source opened up.
The breadth of same-day pickup — Engadget, Ars Technica, MacStories, BGR, App Advice and others all carried the story within hours — signals how much pent-up demand sat behind a two-and-a-half-year absence, and how notable the open-sourcing of a ground-up rewrite is for an app distributed through a closed storefront.
First-order effects
- iOS users get back a free, worldwide media player capable of handling formats outside Apple's defaults, and VideoLAN regains its distribution channel on the platform it abandoned in 2011.
- Because the rewrite is fully open-sourced, any developer can now inspect, reuse, or fork the entire iOS codebase from day one — not just the underlying playback engine.
Second-order effects
- Paid third-party iOS video players suddenly compete with a $0 incumbent carrying the VLC brand, pressuring their pricing and feature differentiation.
- An open, modern iOS codebase gives other platforms and projects a ready-made reference implementation, lowering the cost of porting or building on VLC's mobile work.
Third-order effects
- The return sets a working template for how established open-source desktop projects re-enter closed mobile app stores — rewrite natively for the platform's rules while keeping the source public.
- If the pattern holds, App Store availability becomes a checkbox every major open-source project must solve rather than a permanent exclusion, nudging Apple's storefront toward tolerating fully open apps alongside commercial ones.
The trend: Major open-source media and utility projects are re-entering Apple's closed App Store as free, fully open-sourced native apps after earlier removals, treating mobile storefronts as distribution rather than ideology.