Notes on Android video apps
Last updated : 6/5/2025
Introduction
Yes, I actually wasn't all that satisfied with Next Player with it losing progress when it is interrupted, and I decided to revisit the 2 mpv players on Android, looking to scratch the itch of having an actually reliable & stable video player. But then I documented them, and ended up having to cut this entire thing off the already bloated app list because this is a bit too bloated for that.
mpv‐android
libmpv compiled into an Android app.
Advantages compared to others :
- Least options, fastest setups.
Personal issues % niggles :
- Requires .conf editing (input.conf & mpv.conf in Settings > Advanced) for certain options (like setting custom durations for double tap to seek, which defaults to 10 seconds without input.conf).
- Requires an additional tap before responding to gestures in certain ROMs (such as ArrowOS A11). Seems to be a known issue that remained unfixed at the time of writing.
- 2 file pickers ‐ DocumentsUI & legacy filepicker that asks for storage permission.
- No theme customizations whatsoever. Not that you would mind it considering you're better off spending as little time as possible in Settings, which mpv‐android does well, but still...
Links:
mpvKt
mpv‐android with a nicer interface.
Advantages compared to others :
- DocumentsUI as its only file picker. That's... one less file picker than the others, though not much of an advantage considering I'd usually rely on my gallery app as the "file picker".
- No storage permission requests whatsoever.
- Manual .conf options (Preferences > Advanced) still present, but now mostly optional (for example, setting double tap to seek duration is in Preferences > Player > Double tap seek duration).
Personal issues % niggles :
- No theme customizations on ≤A11 beyond dark/light theme. And no black theme as well. Not that it really mattered since I only spend some time (more than mpv‐android) in mpvKt's settings, but still.
- Less smooth anecdotal performance. Lags when pausing heavier videos on weaker devices.
- Caption customizations only possible when playing video.
Links:
Next Player
A native Android video player. I initially picked this for my ArrowOS A11 setup, but now switched to mpvKt as it had the least issues & niggles I can note.
Advantages compared to others :
- Lightest filesize. 19.2MB of universal apk (and 8.6MB for the arm64, just to make it fair) is nice, even when compared to arm64 apks (the universal apks reach upwards of 50MB) of both mpv‐android (22.4MB) & mpvKt (18.9MB). (measurement taken as of 6/5/2025 using latest stable variants at that time)
- Smoothest (subjective) performance. On a Samsung A50S, mpv‐android & mpvKt buffered for no reason (on bigger videos) while Next Player doesn't.
- Option between Next Player's own caption style & native caption style. On the other hand, mpv‐android & mpvKt uses their own caption style, ignoring the native option.
Personal issues % niggles :
- Loses video progress if interrupted, such as by device sleeping or leaving Next Player.
- No theme customizations on ≤A11 beyond dark/light theme & cyan accent, though black theme for dark theme is present, at least.
- No option to disable brightness gesture without disabling the volume gesture with it.
- Includes own file picker in addition to DocumentsUI, with the former being open by default & immediately asking for storage permission.
- No manual .conf options.
Links:
Others
Dishonorable mentions :
- VLC : While VLC does natively support playing both music & video, it wasn't up to my standards for the former.
- Simple / Fossify Gallery : Usable video player (without any audio file support), though no subtitle support. Any left / right swipes will have you replay whatever you're watching from the start.
- Literally every video apps on Android I've found requests network permission to open URLs (in case of the 3 video players I've actually used), even though they weren't always necessary especially for offline‐only users.
If there's any honorable mention, every single of the <h4>‐tagged apps (other than those dishonorable mentions) deserves to be there. There's none yet as all 3 remain imperfect enough from sending the others into honorable mentions.
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