BitTorrent's popular torrent client, uTorrent, hasn't received any updates in years, but it looks like the biggest ever change is coming soon. BitTorrent creator and founder Bram Cohen revealed at the "Steal This Show" podcast this week that series of interesting upgrades for the torrent client are underway.
The biggest change uTorrent users can expect is the shift from an individual client to user's default browser. By doing so, BitTorrent will not just make downloading easy, but it will significantly improve users' movies and TV shows streaming experience, which will look more like other streaming websites available on the internet right now.
"We're also taking the opportunity here to actually clean up our client experience. So, from a product standpoint, the new revision of uTorrent is going to run in the user's default browser. That's just a nicer experience," Cohen said, according to Torrent Freak.
The idea behind browser-based uTorrent is being derived from the company's browser project, Maelstrom, which did not see the day of light. Picking up the best of Maelstrom features and offering it in a default browser that user already has on the PC won't require additional installs.
"The features behind it that people really want, being able to see torrents in the browser, we're basically going to be shipping with the new uTorrent. It's going to be your browser instead of a separate browser," Cohen explained.
There is no exact release date on when users will see the new uTorrent within the browser, which seems more convenient than having a separate client, but Cohen said there will be a pilot test before a commercial rollout. Based on the feedback it receives from initial users, BitTorrent will move ahead with the global rollout.
"We're very, very sensitive. We know people have been using uTorrent for a very long time and love it. So we're very, very sensitive to that and gonna be sure to make sure that people feel that it's an upgrade that's happening. Not that we've just destroyed the experience," Cohen concluded.
uTorrent client has nearly 150 million monthly active users, making it the largest torrent client. The last updated torrent client, uTorrent 3.0, was pushed out to users five years ago, and has ever since been running the same version. This update will bring a refreshing change amidst the ongoing battles between piracy sites and copyright holders.
