With big full HD screen and powerful processors, playing a high quality video on your android device is not a big deal. Most of the stock video players that come pre-installed with the device is good enough to handle some of the file types such as MP4 and WMV but when it comes to supporting some uncommon video file types like MKV or FLV, they suck. Fortunately there are lots of ‘free’ and better alternatives available in the Play Store. Unfortunately, there are lots of them. So for your convenience we selected best of them. This list is not a comprehensive list, it’s just in alphabetical order. So let’s look at the 11 Best video players for android.
BS Player
This is one solid video player for android that supports almost all video files including AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, MOV, MPG, MTS, MP4, M4V, RMVB, 3GP, etc. if you’re device has dual core or higher processor, you can play 720P and even 1080P video files due to its hardware accelerated video playback feature. BS player supports subtitles (SSA, SRT, SUB, TXT, etc.) and will also help you find subtitles for your video files online. You can adjust aspect-ratio, zoom the video playback, boost volume up to 500% and use assigned gesture control to seek, jump, brightness and volume control. BS will continue playing the video in a pop-up when you exit the main interface. You can create your own playlist, play video directly from uncompressed RAR files or from a USB drive as it supports USB OTG. Viewing videos online will not be a problem if you’re using BS player as it supports streaming RTMP, RTSP, MMS, HTTP contents.
Get it from the Play Store!
Dice Player
Dice Player is yet another excellent video player available on the Play Store. Its sleek user interface, playback speed controller, and view lock control make it ideal for daily use. Like BS and most of the video player apps on this list, Dice Player can also control the aspect-ratio and supports subtitle. It will even calibrate you subtitle sync if they are not perfectly synced with the video file. Dice supports wide range of video formats including AVI, MOV, MKV, FLV, AVI, 3GP, WMV, MP4, M4V, TS, MTP, etc. and subtitles including SSA, SMI, SRT, etc. it will let you select audio track if you have more than one in your options. Dice Player supports hardware acceleration, which means you can also view HD videos if your device is powerful enough. Support for HTTP, RTP/RTSP means you can even stream videos live. The best thing about Dice Player is. It even allows you to push files over Samba, FTP, and others.
Get it from the Play Store!
Feather
This app is built to do one thing and one thing only – play videos; which it does fairly well. It will even let you add video and music together in the same playlist, which means it is also music player! Since Feather preloads everything, is feels pretty fast. It looks good as it allows you to make its user interface transparent and uses your system wallpaper as its theme. Ongoing notification will allow you to easily view and return to the app from anywhere on your device. All the codecs comes bundled so you don’t have to waste your time downloading additional codecs to make the video run. Feather supports almost all the audio file types including MP3, FLAC, MID, OGG, WAV, AAC, TA, etc. but has limited video format support (3GP, MP4, WEBM, MKV, etc.). The features are limited too, so if you’re looking for a feature rich video player then this isn’t the one for you.
Get it from the Play Store!
GPlayer
The main feature of this app is its multiple floating pop-up video playing but you can also view them normally using full screen if this isn’t your cup of tea. This app is great for those who want to watch videos while doing some other task in the background. It supports most of the popular video formats if you use its software decoder. GPlayer can be customized according to your taste using themes or make your own theme. Its user interface is customizable too – grid, list or 3D gallery mode, your choice. It as gesture control feature, which means you can play a video with just a gesture. You can share media via high speed wireless without any configuration and make you’re your own personalized lists. GPlayer also supports popular subtitle formats such as SRT, ASS, SMI, etc.
Get it from the Play Store!
KM Player
This new media player has been trusted by a lot of users, that’s why it has over a million downloads on the Play Store. The main screen will list all the video files on your SD card and sort it alphabetically with thumbnails. It’ll also show you its size and resolution. The on-screen controls are pretty decent and KM supports gesture controls too. You you quit the video in between, it’ll save the progress so the next time you open the video it’ll play from where you left off. You cannot manually add subtitles but if the subtitle is of the same name as the video in the same folder, KM Player will recognize it. You can adjust the screen orientation, enable dictation of headset, adjust the performance, and a lot more. Although it is not yet ready to compete with MX player and Mobo player, it still has a bright future.
Get it from the Play Store!
mVideo Player
This app is one of the best video player replacement for android. It has a neat interface where your movies, TV shows and other videos will be displayed in different screens. Unfortunately, mVideo Player will only paly bak those video which is supported by your device, so if you’re looking for wide range of video playback then this app is not for you. It supports popular subtitle formats such as SRT, SSA, ASS, SUB, MPL, SMI, TXT, etc. It has a built-in subtitle search powered by OpenSubtitles.org. The controls are responsive and there are a lot of tweaking options to let you make this app fit your needs. You can continue from where you left off with its bookmarks fearture.
Get it from the Play Store!
Mobo Player
This list will be incomplete if Mobo Player isn’t mentioned. This is one of the oldest and still popular media player available for android. It has a neat user interface which allows you to brows your SD card for videos and audios. With Mobo you don’t have to every worry about unsupported video format as it will play any video you throw at it such as MKV, MPV, MOV etc. but you have to choose software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which will consume a little more of your battery. It support popular subtitle formats such as ASS, SRT, SAA and hardcoded subtitle. The playback screen can be customized to show you battery level, screen on time, etc. you can even change the background color with the color of your choice. Mobo also supports floating window and its size can be adjusted too. It has support for WIDI and DLNA or any other dual-display support.
Get it from the Play Store!
MX Player
This is another oldest and popular media player which can be see installed in most of the devices that runs on android. I’ve been using this since the first time I bought an android 4 years ago and I haven’t had any second thoughts about this app yet. It has the right balance of ease of access and features. Its playback screen can be customized to view time, battery level and a lot others but its look neat and minimal. It supports all the popular video formats. It supports gesture controls including pinch-to-zoom, swipe-to-fast forward and others. If your device has dual core processors or above, you’ll feel no lack whatsoever. It supports most of the subtitles formats including SSA, ASS, SMI, SRT, SUB, TXT, MPL, PSB, PJS, and VTT. You can scroll subtitles forward / backward or up / down to control your subtitle while video playback is in progress.
Get it from the Play Store!
Rock Player
Rock Player is a comparatively new but totally stable video player app. It can handle pretty much every video format such as MKV, ANI, RMVB, FLV, WMV, MOV, MP4, TS, MPG, DIVX, etc. and audio formats such as MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, FLAC, AIFF, etc. unfortunately it supports one SRT subtitle format but this is the most common subtitle format that you’ll come across so this shouldn’t be a problem. Using RockShare you can exchange files between devices over Wi-Fi or share videos to any Rock Player user, both Android and iOS. It has gesture controls and customizable control bar to customize the app to fit your need. While in library, you can hide the selected videos by shaking the device. It supports multiple network protocols such as HTTP, HLS, RTSP, etc for network streaming.
Get it from the Play Store!
vPlayer
The developers behind vPlayer went for a minimalistic approach and made a straight-up and light video player. It supports popular video file formats such as MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, TS, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, ASF, WMV, etc. It’ll scan your SD card for video files and display them in folder view, only folder view. It gives a decent performance whilst playing videos and you can even set the video quality, aspect ratio, buffer size, screen orientation, gestures, and a lot of others. The best thing of vPlayer is that you can paste YouTube and Vimeo URLs and play it on vPlayer. It supports both hardware and software decoding. You don’t have to worry about the subtitles as it supports all popular formats such as SSA, ASS, SMI, SUB, SRT, TXT, etc. you can also stream internet videos using HTTP.
Get it from the Play Store!
VLC for Android
Yeah, you guessed it right. This is the same trusted VLC you use it on your computer. Although it is still in beta stage, it is stable enough for use and doesn’t have any major issues. It supports wide range of video formats and subtitles and also multi-track audio. VLC also has hardware decoding feature but it currently has limited device support. It has a media library which allows you to browse video and audio files. You can customize video’s aspect ratio, control brightness, enable / disable auto rotation, and volume control gestures. VLC also has widget for audio control. However, it is still in beta stage so developer warns you to use it at your own risk.
Get it from the Play Store!
Wondershare Player
Wondershare Player is a great video player and finder. You can download videos and watch it without the need of extra codecs. You’ll be suggested videos according to its popularity from various platforms such as YouTube Vevo, Hulu, etc. You can also stream videos from CNN, NY Times, Ted Talk, NASA TV, and Funny or Die. Wondershare Players has UPnP and DLNA support so you can watch those videos on bigger screens. if you have Wondershare desktop client installed in your computer then you can play files saved on your computer. It supports almost all the video file formats including FLV, AVI, MKV, WMV, MOV, RM, ASF, and audio formats including MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, M2TS, VOB, etc. subtitle formats such as SSA, SMI, SRT, SUB, TXT, MPL, etc. are also supported. You can even play DVD folders with navigation.
Get it from the Play Store!
We’ve come to the end of this list of the best video players for android. if you think something’s missing, please feel free to drop a comment.
