KMPlayer - All Video Player

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about KMPlayer is how little it wants to argue about file types. The developer's format list covers the mainstream containers people actually end up with, from MP4 and MKV to MPG, TS, FLV and RMVB, plus audio formats including FLAC and WAV, and a subtitle roster that runs from the common SRT through SSA/ASS styling, VobSub and WebVTT. Where some players push you toward a conversion step, this one is built on the premise that the file you already have should just open.

That makes it a reasonable candidate for anyone whose library has accumulated over the years: recordings from a TV tuner, clips pulled from a camera, downloads in a container a phone's built-in gallery refuses, and subtitled films where the styling matters. If your viewing is mostly streaming inside other apps, the appeal is thinner, because the work this player does is at the level of files and sources rather than catalogs.

It has been on Google Play since March 2014 and now shows more than 10 million installs with a 4.1 average across 385,240 ratings, which tells you it has had a long run in a crowded category.

A player that opens what you already have

The core experience is straightforward playback of video, music and subtitles at high resolution, with the developer pitching 4K and 8K material as the target. Around that sits a set of controls that lean toward people who watch the same things repeatedly rather than once: bookmarks that mark time points you want to return to, and a section repeat that loops between two chosen points. For a language learner drilling a scene, or someone studying a passage of a lecture recording, those two tools do more than a long feature list would.

Picture adjustment goes further than a brightness slider. The app lets you change brightness, light intensity, hue, saturation and gamma, and you can expand or contract the playing image. That is the sort of control that matters when a file was encoded badly or when a phone screen renders dark scenes poorly; it is also the sort of control most casual viewers will never open.

Audio gets its own treatment, with separate equalizer settings saved for music and for video. That split is a small detail but a sensible one, since the sound profile you want for an album is rarely the one you want for a film dialogue track.

Subtitles, sources and the network side

Subtitle handling is where the format list earns its length. The app reads DVD and DVB subtitle tracks, SSA/ASS files with their full styling, SAMI with ruby tag support, SubRip, MicroDVD, VobSub, SubViewer2.0, MPL2, TMPlayer, Teletext, PJS and WebVTT. You can adjust the color, size and position of the text, which is the practical part: a subtitle track that sits too low or too small on a phone screen is the usual reason people give up on a file.

Beyond local storage, the player reaches outward. It supports FTP, UPNP, SMB and WebDav, so media sitting on a home server or network drive can be played without moving it first, and it connects to Dropbox and OneDrive for cloud-stored files. There is also URL playback, where you paste a link and the app streams from the web. Chromecast support sends playback to a television.

Taken together, these are the features that separate a file player from a gallery app. The trade-off is that each source type is another thing to configure, and the value of the network and cloud options depends entirely on whether you already keep media in those places. Someone whose videos live in the phone's camera roll will not touch most of this.

What the paid tier adds

KMPlayer offers a VIP purchase, and the developer lists what it covers: a torrent client that plays while a download is still in progress, tools to cut a selected section from video or audio, GIF creation from videos, MP3 extraction to pull audio out of a video file, and VIP themes. These are editing and conversion jobs rather than playback ones, and they are the reason the app can serve as a light utility rather than only a viewer.

The subscription terms are worth reading before you start a trial. The free trial is limited to one per Google Play account, the chosen plan renews and charges automatically once the trial ends, and canceling at least 24 hours before the trial finishes avoids the charge. Management and cancelation happen through Google Play settings.

None of this affects basic playback, which is the free core. Whether the VIP tools are worth paying for depends on how often you want to trim a clip, rip audio or make a GIF on the phone instead of on a computer.

Permissions, requirements and rough edges

The app needs access to your files. On Android 11 and above that means the all files access permission, which the developer explains can be granted through the privacy and permission manager settings; on earlier versions it is the storage permission. This is normal for a player that has to find media anywhere on the device, but it is a broad grant, and it is required rather than optional.

One permission is optional: drawing over other apps, which the app requests for pop-up play. The developer notes that the basic service works without agreeing to it, though features that depend on it will not be available. That is a clear enough split, and it means you can decline the overlay permission and still watch video in the normal full-screen way.

The other thing to weigh is scope. This is a player with a long toolset attached, and the features that make it interesting, network sources, cloud accounts, subtitle styling, section loops, are also the ones that ask something of you. Anyone expecting a single tap and a video will find the free playback path perfectly short, but the rest of the app is pitched at people who tinker.

Who this player is built for

The clearest fit is someone with a messy, personal media library: files in several containers, subtitles in formats other players ignore, and a mix of local, network and cloud storage. For that person, the breadth of format support and the source options are the whole point, and the extra controls are useful rather than clutter.

A second group is people who rewatch and study material. Bookmarks, A-to-B repeat, subtitle position and size, and the color controls all serve that habit, and they are the features I would point to first for anyone using video as a learning tool rather than as entertainment.

The paid extras suit a narrower audience: people who want to trim, convert or make GIFs without leaving the phone. If your use is closer to pressing play on a single downloaded film and casting it to the TV, the free side of the app covers that comfortably, and the VIP tier is simply something you can ignore.

The case for installing it

KMPlayer earns a place on a phone as a general-purpose player with unusually wide format and subtitle coverage, plus source options that reach a home network and two cloud services. The playback tools, bookmarks, section repeat, subtitle styling and picture adjustment, are the kind that stay useful long after the novelty of a new app wears off. It is free to install and shows no ads.

The caveats are a required all-files permission on modern Android, an optional overlay permission for pop-up play, and a VIP purchase whose subscription renews automatically after a one-per-account trial. Those are ordinary terms for this category rather than surprises, but they are worth reading before you commit to a plan.

I would suggest it to anyone who has ever had a video file refused by a default gallery app, or who keeps subtitled films and wants the text to look right. It is also a sensible choice for people who store media on a network drive or in Dropbox and OneDrive. For straightforward playback of a handful of MP4s, it will do the job without complaint, though much of what makes it distinctive will go unused.

The most recent update added a Trash feature alongside bug fixes, which suggests a team still tending the app rather than letting it sit. With more than a decade of releases behind it and a 4.1 average from a large body of ratings, this is a mature player with a clearly defined audience: people who care about formats, subtitles and sources, and who do not mind a few settings in exchange.

What's new in version 36.04.235

Thanks to your feedback, we’re getting even better 💜 - Added Trash feature - Other: Bug fixes Thank you.