Explore the top video players designed for Android and make an informed choice !! Continue reading
Android, Google’s flagship operating system, is clearly dominating today’s smartphone market. With around 71% global market share, Android hosts around 3.3 billion users worldwide.
According to a behavioral survey report, Android-powered mobile phone users appear to have increasingly adopted the habit of multitasking on their smartphones.
Watching videos in Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode while continuing with other tasks, such as sending emails, accessing the calendar, and using other necessary apps, has become entirely normal for today’s users.
In such instances where video streaming is a priority, a video player for Android needs to be more than just a simple media renderer. It needs to be a robust, customizable, and high-performing media player optimized for seamless streaming in Android applications.
In this blog, we will help you navigate the complex world of Android video players for streaming. We’ll compare some of the best video players for Android on key factors such as speed, battery consumption, streaming capabilities, resource usage, and customization options. Our goal is to help you identify the best video player for Android that aligns with your streaming business objectives. So, let’s get started.
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An Android video player is an embedded media player, exclusively designed for Android-powered mobile and smart TVs. The video player serves as a direct interface between your content and your audience, enabling viewers to stream videos directly through Android applications.
At its core, an Android video player SDK is a software component that sits at the end of the video streaming workflow, helping the streaming application to decode and render video streams to end users seamlessly.
Earlier, video players for Android were primarily based on Adobe Flash; however, as mobile compatibility became essential for video streaming, the trend shifted towards modern HTML5 video players, such as Muvi Player, EXO Player, and VLC.
Modern HTML5 video players for Android are equipped with adaptive bitrate and low-latency streaming technologies, ensuring faster load times, improved compatibility, and an enhanced viewing experience across various devices.
Most importantly, today’s Android video players support both on-demand playback and live streaming, enabling broadcasters to deliver everything from library-based content offerings to real-time event coverage – all through a single, responsive media player interface.
When choosing a video player for your Android-based applications, it’s important to evaluate and consider the essential features that cater to the modern-day streaming habits of viewers. Here is a list of essential Android video player features that ensure smooth video streaming and, at the same time, take care of the engagement aspect.
Ensuring that your Android video player supports advanced video streaming features is essential for both smooth video delivery and audience engagement. Hence, it is very important to choose the best video player for Android that comes with all these essential features.
In our next section, we will be talking about the top Android video players in 2025. We will compare the best video players for Android in terms of their key features, pros, cons, and other factors.
There are many video players out in the streaming space, but here we are only going to discuss the video players that have good compatibility with Android apps. The curated list of the best Android video players in 2025 includes: Muvi Live, Exo Player, VLC, MX Player, and Kodi.
Muvi Player is a highly optimized Android video player SDK designed to integrate advanced video playback into your Android applications seamlessly. It’s built from the ground up for businesses prioritizing video streaming quality, security, and a full suite of monetization and advanced playback controls for viewers. Currently, in 2025, Muvi Player is counted among the best video players for Android. Have a look at the key features of this highly rated Android video player.
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Standout Features:
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Pricing:
Muvi Player is a free-to-integrate video player for your Android apps. The pricing is offered in two tiers. Standard (completely free) and Enterprise ($499/month).
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ExoPlayer, developed and maintained by Google, is a powerful open-source media player for Android. It’s a popular choice for developers who need maximum flexibility and are willing to invest significant development resources. This video player for Android is popularly known for offering support for multiple streaming protocols, default audio and video renderers, and components that handle media buffering. ExoPlayer is easy to customize and extend, and can be updated through Play Store application updates.
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Free and open-source (Apache License 2.0). The true cost lies in the extensive internal developer time and resources required for implementation, customization, ongoing maintenance, and integrating necessary third-party services.
VLC Media Player is a household name, recognized for its ability to play virtually any media file format. Its Android counterpart and the underlying LibVLC library offer versatility, but come with significant considerations for commercial streaming applications. As VLC is completely free, many developers often consider it the best video player for Android.
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Pricing: Free and open-source Android media player. For commercial projects seeking simplified licensing or dedicated support for specific wrappers (like LibVLCSharp for .NET), commercial licenses may be available at an additional cost.
MX Player is an immensely popular consumer-facing Android video player app, renowned for its hardware acceleration and gesture controls. However, its utility for businesses building their own streaming applications is extremely limited. This video player for Android is also known for offering a full-fledged OTT library that includes movies, web series, and many other content.
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Pricing for MX Player is not specific. Being a developer, if you want to integrate this video player for Android, you must consult with their official team.
Kodi is a free and open-source media center software primarily designed by the XBMC Foundation. It comes with advanced video playback options like offline viewing, and also supports live TV streaming with EPG. While powerful for organizing and playing local and network media, it is not an Android video player SDK, hence not suitable for embedding into custom Android streaming applications.
Standout Features:
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Pricing: Kodi’s media player pricing is not clear. Though it is a free and open-source video player, but for SDK integration into Android apps, you need to consult with their team.
| Feature/Factor | Muvi Player | ExoPlayer | VLC for Android | MX Player | Kodi |
| Speed | Very Fast | Fast | Fast | Very Fast | Variable |
| Resource Usage | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate-High | High |
| Battery Consumption | Efficient | Efficient | Efficient | Moderately Efficient | Less Efficient |
| Format Support | Extensive | Extensive | Extensive | Extensive | Extensive |
| UI/UX | Fully Customizable | Developer-built | User-Friendly | Highly Intuitive | Customizable |
| Subtitle Support | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Advanced | Excellent |
| Streaming Capability | Excellent | Excellent | Good | Good | Good |
| Additional Features | Unified Android Device Support, Enterprise DRM, Integrated Monetization, Comprehensive Analytics, Dedicated Support, Casting | API-driven, extensible framework, Google-maintained, highly flexible for custom builds. | Pop-up Play, Audio Equalizer, Gesture controls, Network Browse. | Gesture Control, Kids Lock, HW+ Decoder, Pop-up Play. | Full Media Center, Add-on System, PVR/DVR, Home network streaming. |
The best video player for Android depends entirely on your Android app’s configuration and video streaming needs. What kind of features and technical capabilities you want in your video player for streaming, decides which Android video player is right for you.
Muvi Player stands out as a developer-friendly video player. Its seamless integration with the Android applications provides a robust, scalable, secure, and monetizable solution, significantly reducing development time and operational complexity. It’s built for serious video streaming businesses.
ExoPlayer is an excellent choice for Android video player. Its flexibility and Google backing make it ideal for highly customized, native experiences, provided you have the resources to develop and maintain all ancillary features (UI, DRM, analytics, ad integrations etc.)
VLC Android Media Player might be considered, but it requires more developer effort for commercial streaming purposes and lacks many critical business features.
MX Player and Kodi are popular consumer apps. However, it’s crucial to understand that they are not suitable as embeddable video player SDKs for integrating with your streaming applications.
Muvi Player SDK is designed with developers in mind, offering an easy-to-integrate, developer-friendly experience. Its modular and API-driven architecture simplifies the integration process, allowing you to get advanced video streaming capabilities up and running quickly. This efficiency saves valuable development time and resources, enabling you to focus on innovating your app’s core features.
Muvi Player comes with built-in Adaptive bitrate and low-latency streaming technology, ensuring seamless video delivery to viewers across Android devices. The online video player is also equipped with enterprise-grade DRM support, monetization, and analytics. The best thing about Muvi Player is you can fully customize the media player as per your Android application’s requirements, simply without writing a single line of code.
For Android developers building serious, production-ready streaming applications, Muvi Player offers a compelling alternative to building from the ground up with open-source video players. It provides a comprehensive, feature-rich, and secure solution that accelerates development, minimizes complexities, and ensures a top-tier video experience for your users.
By choosing Muvi Player, you’re not just integrating the best video player for Android; you’re investing in a robust foundation that allows you to focus on your app’s unique value proposition while Muvi Player handles the heavy lifting of video delivery.
Explore how Muvi Player can help you power up your Android applications. Take a Muvi Player demo now.
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Written by: Richi Milan
Richi is a passionate content marketing enthusiast with hands-on experience in strategizing and creating compelling content. Currently, working with world's best OTT platform provider - Muvi. Dive-in and explore the OTT-verse with Richi!!
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