Android is a really awesome mobile Operating System and its pretty flexible unlike iOS. Its built-in features are also great and with its settings you get complete control on your Android device. But with that its not a secret that the default video player that comes in Android OS is not as great as there are many others available in Google Play Store. Let's have a look at the 5 best video player applications in Android OS:
MoBoPlayer is a perennially popular video player app, and for good reason.
When you first install the app, it scans your device and associated SD cards, reeling in all the content it detects as ‘video’ on your device. And it supports folders too, so if you have all your content divided into categories, such as ‘TV Shows’, ‘Documentaries’, ‘Movies’, it will display this as such – though one tap can change the view to include everything on a single screen.
2) WonderShare Player
You get the ability to copy/paste video links into Wondershare and save for later, but this goes further in that it contains a built-in browser letting you search for videos across a number of sites.
For many, Wondershare will lose some appeal through trying to be too many things at once. The locally-stored videos, for example, require a few clicks and scrolls to get there, though there is a ‘Play History’ shortcut buried in the menu button to take you quickly to recently viewed skits.
It would be good if the menu options could be configured to bring the local library to the forefront, and also if it would detect folders on the device, so that any manually-curated categories would be reflected within the app.
Downloaded Wondershare Player by clicking the following button:
3) MX Player
MX Player has emerged as one of the preeminent video-player apps on Android, with an ad-supported free version and an ad-free alternative that costs $5.60.
MX Player has a main folders view but, again, it would be good to be able to switch to ‘All’ a little easier – as things stand you must navigate to settings and switch this view off. Not a big deal-breaker for sure, but it’s just that little extra bit of friction.
In terms of ads in the free version, well, they’re not overly intrusive. You’ll see some at the bottom of the screen when navigating your videos, and when you have a video paused.
You can also set things so that it always resumes from the point where you left off, or have it ask you on launch whether to start from scratch. And there’s an easy option for switching to portrait mode, unlike many of the other apps which typically require you to dig deep into the settings to enable this.
Download MX Player by clicking the following button:
4) VLC Player
From the vaults of VideoLAN comes VLC for Android, which remains in beta having initially launched more than a year ago.
Given that it’s still classed as a beta product, it’s being targeted at power users and hackers, and is “not stable”. It might even kill your kitten and destroy your house.
When you launch the app, things do feel a little on the slow side, and it takes a while to reel in all your content – this is an audio player as well as a video player. So if you have many gigabytes of music on your device, you’d better be patient. And things do lag a little bit, but hopefully all these issues will be resolved once this is a fully ‘launched’ product.
As things stand though, it gives a good insight into what this product may eventually become. It has a nice interface, though this could change as it nears its full launch, and it does offer browsing by folder through navigating down into the directory. However, it would be nice to see folder view become an optional view alongside the ‘everything on your device’ view.
Download VLC Player by clicking the following button:
5) Archos Video Player
Archos is well-known for its hardware, but it also has a great-looking little Android app that might be worth your time.
You can filter through your library according to how your videos have been labelled, so ‘TV Shows’ and ‘Movies’ for example. You can also manually sift through the directories by folder, and sort your collection alphabetically, by date order, duration, rating and more.
But where Archos really shines is in its design and layout. It is a beautiful app, and automatically retrieves movie and TV show data, including posters, which gives this app more of a DVD-shelf look-and-feel. This really comes to the fore when you flip your device into landscape mode:
Archos Video Player is one of the lesser-known video-player apps, but one that does deserve your attention.
Download Archos Video Player by clicking the following download button:
1) MoBo Player
MoBoPlayer is a perennially popular video player app, and for good reason.
When you first install the app, it scans your device and associated SD cards, reeling in all the content it detects as ‘video’ on your device. And it supports folders too, so if you have all your content divided into categories, such as ‘TV Shows’, ‘Documentaries’, ‘Movies’, it will display this as such – though one tap can change the view to include everything on a single screen.
MoboPlayer isn’t perfect though. Getting it to resume automatically from a previously paused/stopped point isn’t a consistent experience. Sometimes you can hit pause, go away and do other things, come back and kick off from where you left it. Other times, however, it will play from the start again. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason for it, and seems arbitrary, so as a back-up, remember which position in the video you were at.
Overall though, it’s a great player that performs consistently well in terms of playback and video quality, and is easy on the eye to boot.
Download MoboPlayer by clicking the following button:
2) WonderShare Player
You get the ability to copy/paste video links into Wondershare and save for later, but this goes further in that it contains a built-in browser letting you search for videos across a number of sites.
For many, Wondershare will lose some appeal through trying to be too many things at once. The locally-stored videos, for example, require a few clicks and scrolls to get there, though there is a ‘Play History’ shortcut buried in the menu button to take you quickly to recently viewed skits.
It would be good if the menu options could be configured to bring the local library to the forefront, and also if it would detect folders on the device, so that any manually-curated categories would be reflected within the app.
Downloaded Wondershare Player by clicking the following button:
3) MX Player
MX Player has emerged as one of the preeminent video-player apps on Android, with an ad-supported free version and an ad-free alternative that costs $5.60.
MX Player has a main folders view but, again, it would be good to be able to switch to ‘All’ a little easier – as things stand you must navigate to settings and switch this view off. Not a big deal-breaker for sure, but it’s just that little extra bit of friction.
In terms of ads in the free version, well, they’re not overly intrusive. You’ll see some at the bottom of the screen when navigating your videos, and when you have a video paused.
You can also set things so that it always resumes from the point where you left off, or have it ask you on launch whether to start from scratch. And there’s an easy option for switching to portrait mode, unlike many of the other apps which typically require you to dig deep into the settings to enable this.
Download MX Player by clicking the following button:
4) VLC Player
From the vaults of VideoLAN comes VLC for Android, which remains in beta having initially launched more than a year ago.
Given that it’s still classed as a beta product, it’s being targeted at power users and hackers, and is “not stable”. It might even kill your kitten and destroy your house.
When you launch the app, things do feel a little on the slow side, and it takes a while to reel in all your content – this is an audio player as well as a video player. So if you have many gigabytes of music on your device, you’d better be patient. And things do lag a little bit, but hopefully all these issues will be resolved once this is a fully ‘launched’ product.
As things stand though, it gives a good insight into what this product may eventually become. It has a nice interface, though this could change as it nears its full launch, and it does offer browsing by folder through navigating down into the directory. However, it would be nice to see folder view become an optional view alongside the ‘everything on your device’ view.
Download VLC Player by clicking the following button:
5) Archos Video Player
Archos is well-known for its hardware, but it also has a great-looking little Android app that might be worth your time.
You can filter through your library according to how your videos have been labelled, so ‘TV Shows’ and ‘Movies’ for example. You can also manually sift through the directories by folder, and sort your collection alphabetically, by date order, duration, rating and more.
But where Archos really shines is in its design and layout. It is a beautiful app, and automatically retrieves movie and TV show data, including posters, which gives this app more of a DVD-shelf look-and-feel. This really comes to the fore when you flip your device into landscape mode:
Archos Video Player is one of the lesser-known video-player apps, but one that does deserve your attention.
Download Archos Video Player by clicking the following download button:
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