VideoLAN is working on browser version VLC based on WebAssembly

The VideoLAN development team is working on a new browser version of VLC based on WebAssembly and JavaScript, which will make it possible to watch movies from a web page. The team will also release VLC 4.0 this year.

According to Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the chairman of the VideoLAN foundation, VLC for the web is not yet finished, but significant progress has been made. He tells Protocol that the browser version basically involves running VLC in a web page and allowing users to play any supported video file in a browser.

VLC already had a plug-in to run in browsers, but it was based on Flash, which is no longer supported. The new variant has been developed on the basis of WebAssembly and JavaScript. WebAssembly is an open W3C standard that is supported by almost all popular browsers and is intended to run applications on web pages with no plugin requirement.

Kempf also reports that version 4.0 of VLC will be released this year. This version includes a changed interface compared to the current VLC version. According to the chairman, VideoLAN makes it possible to integrate more online content from third parties into the video player via extensions. According to Protocol, he left the door open to supporting videos with advertisements.

Finally, the chairman announced that security is high on the agenda and that VLC is being sandboxed so that criminals cannot access the rest of a system through vulnerabilities in the video player. According to Kempf, a video player is an important attack vector on a system because people install fewer and fewer applications, in addition to a browser, video player, PDF reader and photo application.

Concept of the interface of VLC 4.0 from 2019