Microsoft just released a new media player for Windows 11 that is much more advanced than the one that is currently available. This player can play both audio and video files, has a built-in search engine, and can be used to control playback of media content. It is also much more user-friendly than the one that is currently available.
At this point, we can only speculate what Microsoft will do with the new Media Player app. Most likely, the “Media Player” name is just a placeholder, and it’ll retain the name of whichever app it’s replacing. Of course, if Microsoft decides to phase out both Windows Media Player and Movies & TV, it could condense the apps down into an app called “Media Player.”
It’s been far too long since Microsoft updated either of its media playing applications, so whatever this ends up being called, it’s nice to see the company finally putting in some work and making a more feature-packed media app.
Speaking of features, we only saw a quick glimpse of what it brings to the table. We noticed a new feature that lets you change the track or shuffle a media playlist, which was missing from previous Windows player apps. It also seems to integrate with the Photos app, but we’ll have to get our hands on the new player to see how that works.
It seems likely that Microsoft messed up by showing off the app, as the Windows Insider webcast has since been made private, implying that the company didn’t want us to see the player.
We’ll have to wait until Microsoft officially announces its plans for the built-in Windows media app. Still, whatever the company decides, the quick glimpse we received of “Media Player” looks promising. Between this update and the other new apps like Paint, that Windows 11 release date looks even more exciting.
