---
title: "External player for Telegram videos, and VLC | TMPlayer"
description: "TMPlayer is an external player for Telegram videos, with subtitles, audio tracks and resume. On Android it also hands a video to VLC or MX Player."
url: https://tmplayer.org/guides/external-player-for-telegram/
---

# An external player for *Telegram videos*

Looking for an external player for Telegram, or a way to play Telegram videos in VLC? TMPlayer is one: a free Telegram video player app that signs in to your own account and plays the videos in your chats, with nothing to save first. On Android it can also pass a video on to VLC, MX Player or any other player.

Updated 19 October 2026

[Show me the steps](https://tmplayer.org/guides/external-player-for-telegram/#steps) [Download TMPlayer](https://tmplayer.org/download/)

## TMPlayer is the external player

On Android TV, Fire TV, Android phones, Windows, Linux and Mac.

### Subtitles and every audio track

MKV, MP4, AVI and TS, with embedded subtitles, image-based ones included, and every audio track, switched while the video plays.

### Picks up where you stopped

Your place is kept for Continue watching, and a show's episodes are in order on a page of their own.

### No file to save first

A video starts within seconds and keeps downloading while it plays, so there is no file to save and open somewhere else.

![A show's page in TMPlayer on a phone: the demo series Skybound Academy with its artwork, its overview and a button to resume the second episode.](https://tmplayer.org/screenshots/phone-show.webp)

**On an Android phone**
A show's page with its artwork, its overview and a button to resume.

![The TMPlayer desktop app on Windows or Linux: a chat's demo videos as posters, each with its year, size and resolution, with the chat's name floating at the top and its bar of actions at the foot.](https://tmplayer.org/screenshots/desktop-grid.webp)

**On a computer**
A chat's videos as posters, played through mpv.

## Play a Telegram video in VLC or MX Player

On Android: a phone, a tablet, an Android TV or a Fire TV.

1. ### Install the other player

   Install VLC, MX Player or the player you like on the same device, from its store.

2. ### Play the video in TMPlayer

   Open the chat in TMPlayer and start the video.

3. ### Open the player's menu

   On a phone, tap More options in the player's top bar. On a TV, press Down for the button row and choose More at its end; holding OK while the controls show goes straight to the next step.

4. ### Choose Open in another app

   Pick VLC, MX Player or any other player in the list. TMPlayer saves your place first, so when you come back you carry on from there.

## What the other player gets

- A finished download goes over whole.
- A video still downloading goes over as far as it has got, and TMPlayer warns that the other player will stop there. The download carries on in the background.
- A video with nothing on the device yet cannot go over, and TMPlayer says so.
- A video from a chat that does not allow saving stays in TMPlayer: Open in another app is not in its menu.

It is also the way out for the few formats TMPlayer does not play on Android, such as WMV, RealMedia and Ogg video: when one will not play, the player offers Open in another app. [Every format, by platform](https://tmplayer.org/formats/).

## On a computer

On Windows, Linux and Mac, TMPlayer plays every video itself through mpv, with its subtitles, every audio track and keyboard shortcuts.

A video that is downloaded, or already all on the computer, also has Open in another app in its menu. It opens the file in the app the computer uses for that kind of file, such as VLC when VLC is the default. A chat that does not allow saving keeps its videos in TMPlayer here too.

### Formats

Which video and audio formats play on Android, on a TV and on a computer.

[See the table](https://tmplayer.org/formats/)

### Cast to Chromecast

Cast from TMPlayer on a phone or computer to a Chromecast or Google TV, and how Telegram's own app compares.

[Read the steps](https://tmplayer.org/guides/cast-telegram-videos-to-chromecast/)

### Download TMPlayer

The APK for Android TV, Fire TV and phones, and the apps for Windows, macOS and Linux.

[Download](https://tmplayer.org/download/)

## More help

A video that will not start, or a question about formats: [the questions page](https://tmplayer.org/faq/).

### Support TMPlayer

TMPlayer has no ads of our own (Telegram's sponsored messages appear in public channels, as Telegram requires) and no paid tier. If it saves you some bother, a coffee or a monthly sponsorship pays for the time that goes into it. It is voluntary and unlocks nothing: every feature is free for everyone.

[Buy me a coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/nevil.dev) [Sponsor on GitHub](https://github.com/sponsors/dracu-lah)