The final build of Kodi 19 'Matrix' arrives in time for Christmas, but it won't be coming to Google Play or the Microsoft Store
While Kodi 20 'Nexus' is nearing an official release, it’s not quite game over for Kodi 19 'Matrix' as the Kodi Foundation has just released version 19.5 and you can download it now.
This will be the final release for Matrix however -- all future Kodi releases will be for Nexus -- and this update won't be coming to Google Play or the Microsoft Store either, although there's a good reason for this.
SEE ALSO:
- Running Kodi 20 'Nexus' on Android? You need to make this important change to access your content
- Kodi 20 'Nexus' hits a major release milestone and comes with some important fixes
- Kodi 21 gets an official name
There’s nothing too exciting in this release, beyond big fixes and backports, but if you’re running Kodi 19 you’ll want to install it anyway. The full changelog can be found here.
It’s not good news for users who hoping to install the new version from either Google Play or the Microsoft Store as it won’t be coming to either.
The team explains why:
For Android specifically, please note that we are unable to provide this update via Google Play. An updated Google requirement demands that apps now target API level 31 (Android 12) as a minimum, while Kodi v19 targets API level 29 (Android 10).
As such, we're unable to upload 19.5 to the Play Store, although 19.3 will remain available until 20.0 is available for the masses. However, for those who want the new release, 19.5 can be downloaded from our servers and installed manually.
More than that, though, for both the Play Store and Microsoft App store, there's simply too much throwaway work. With the final release of v20 'Nexus' extremely close, as well as difficulties with the Google Play store submission for v19, there is no practical possibility to do store submissions for 19.5 -- as such, this release will NOT be released on either Google Play or the Microsoft App store. As always, we provide the packages for all platforms on the Kodi mirror website if you wish to install them on your device.
The new build can be downloaded from here.