A bit off-topic
Before finding this thread, I copied my VLC radio playlist files over to an iPhone by uploading them to iCloud Drive;
VLC for mobile would not recognize them. It wants raw media files--audio or video--rather than stream URIs.
That makes sense for a recorded personal music or video library, but not for online streams. It's good to know that an interface for local playlists is planned. NB: Using Siri to speak a URI rather than type one is not good for your sanity or blood pressure.
Work-around
Meanwhile, for those who--for one reason or another--prefer to use
VLC for mobile rather than
Safari, or some internet radio or video app on your iPhone to stream audio or video, here is a "Duct-tape-and-WD-40" way to create a favorite streams list on your iPhone.
To import a set of playlists from another VLC installation into an iPhone one needs to
- a) concatenate all the playlist files into one file whose extension is .TXT
b) upload the file to iCloud Drive
c) import the uploaded file into iPhone Notes app
Then, to play a particular stream on the iPhone one must copy and paste its URI from
Notes to the stream interface in
VLC for mobile.
Proposed interface design guideline
In my opinion, a well-designed
VLC for mobile local playlist streams interface would let the user
- 1) upload playlists directly to the music library using conventional file extensions (.XPSF, .PLS, etc)
2) create playlist groups
3) trigger a playlist in that music library by saying "Hey Siri, play [optional groupName] [playlistName] [with VLC]"
Of course, it would also be nice if
VLC for mobile playlists were truly functional and the "background / repeat" problem could be fixed.