Popular media player app, VLC, has announced that Huawei smartphones are blacklisted from downloading and installing the app from Play Store because of EMUI's aggressive power management policy of killing background apps. After numerous one-star reviews on the Play Store from Huawei users complaining about the VLC app not playing audio in the background, the developer decided to actively block the company's phones.
We finally got an answer from Huawei.
We hope to find a solution on this, in the next few weeks… https://t.co/8YWU3uHBvZ— VideoLAN (@videolan) July 26, 2018
What happens is that EMUI's aggressive power management policy actively kills background non-Huawei processes, which means if you are using the VLC app for background playback it will eventually cease playing. And with users not knowing how to fix the issues, the blame is being laid at VLC's feet.
The blacklisting doesn't affect every Huawei handset; it seems that models from the P8, P10, and P20 ranges are the ones affected, although the Mate 10 Pro can still access the app via the Play Store. A couple of things to note is that Honor phones are currently not included in the blacklisting (weird) and that the VLC APK is available to download directly from the VLC website (here).
One way to ensure that VLC, or any app for that matter, runs in the background without being disturbed is by heading to Settings, Apps, selecting the VLC app and then tapping on Battery. Click on Launch, disable the automatic management and check that the Run in Background option is enabled.
VLC's developer says it has finally received a reply from Huawei on the matter and hopes it can find a solution to the issues in the next few weeks. If you use a recent Huawei phone, has its power management policy affected you in any way? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: VLC (Twitter)
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