From being a means to play media on the original Xbox console to the largest cross-platform media center ever created, Kodi has surely come a long way. It now seems that the Kodi media player is ready for the next big step in media management and online entertainment, as the development team behind it prepares for the release of Kodi v18 codenamed Leia.

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The team has reiterated, that Kodi v17 Krypton, which is the current version of the media center works and will continue to work optimally while the development of v18 Leia begins. It seems that the developers are picking up some serious pace as they’ve released the Alpha 2 version already. To sum up everything you should expect from the Kodi v18 Leia release, here’s everything you need to know.

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Things to know:

  • Alpha releases will be out regularly but there is no fixed timeline for the final release.
  • Music library will gain improvements with a simplified user interface.
  • Instead of using file names, the video library will use embedded tags to populate the library in a structured way.
  • Live TV will be one of the special features of Kodi v18 Leia with front-end recording.
  • You will need external hardware and server software to set up Live TV with Kodi.
  • Kodi is now available as a 32-Bit Bridge application on the Windows Store, so you can easily install it on Windows as well as the Xbox platform.
  • Leanback search integration has been included for Android TV, which allows you to launch Kodi to view content from the main menu.
  • Google Assistant is now fully integrated into Kodi for Android TV users, so you can use the service without picking up the remote.
  • The video player has received a significant update with support for higher resolutions and new codecs.
  • Better hardware integration for seamless video playback and support for 4K, 8K, and HDR content will be implemented in the future.
  • Kodi v18 will also be able to playback DRM protected content with the help of add-ons.

Are you excited to get your hands on the Alpha build of Kodi v18 Leia right now or would you rather wait for the developers to hammer out all the issues with the final release?