It’s taken about six(ish) years but VLC, the popular open-source video player, has doubled its downloads from three to six billion. This total is across all of the software’s available platforms, from Mac to Windows to Android and Linux (plus a few others you’ve never used before).
To celebrate, the developers of the free software are adding another feature you won’t have to pay for: automatic subtitles. Of course, they’re powered by artificial intelligence, but the company says the AI needed will run offline and natively on your device.
VLC gets smart
VLC automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local and open source AI models running on your machine working offline, and supporting numerous languages!
Demo can be found on our #CES2025 booth in Eureka Park. pic.twitter.com/UVmgT6K4ds— VideoLAN (@videolan) January 8, 2025
The feature was demonstrated at this year’s CES and sees the software generating subtitles in real-time across several different languages. We’d fully expect there to be a margin of error in the function, given that giants like Netflix and Amazon struggle to get on-the-fly subtitles correct, but it’s an impressive feat nonetheless.
Despite adding AI to the VLC player — even if it uses whatever you happen to have installed — its developers have opted to keep the player entirely free. How the company manages without collecting user data, stuffing the app full of ads, or charging a monthly subscription is a pleasant mystery.
If you’d like to contribute to the company’s ever-ticking download counter, you can find the media player here. As mentioned, it’ll run on pretty much every operating system worth using and a few that require… specialised knowledge.
