If you’re watching a show on your phone, you won’t be able to easily switch to your TV and keep watching. Instead, Netflix is prioritizing its TV app, meaning you’ll have to grab your TV remote and use the app to play content, or even pause or rewind the show. Volume controls, playback buttons, closed captioning controls, or any other settings will no longer be able to be controlled by your mobile device if you’re streaming to a TV.
The change was first spotted and reported by Android Authority, and the news has sparked a lot of outrage from users on places like Reddit. The change eliminates a workaround that many people use for their own convenience — they can browse Netflix on their phone, then send something to the TV when they’ve chosen what to watch — or because the only account they have access to is authenticated on their phone, and they may not be able to log into the TV app.
“Why would they take away features that are incredibly useful? Why would they make the experience worse?” reads the top Reddit comment on the post sharing the Android Authority article.
Responding to WIRED’s questions via email, a Netflix representative says Netflix is ending support for mobile device playback controls because it wasn’t a feature that enough members used.
The representative says Netflix sometimes has to retire features that are no longer widely used so it can invest in features that provide more value. Netflix won’t share any information about how many people used the casting feature, or what resources the feature is using compared to anything the platform provides.
Casting to TV will still work in some cases. It doesn’t work at all on the cheap ad-supported tiers that Netflix offers. But even if you pay for the more expensive streaming tier, casting from your phone will only work if you’re casting to an older device, like a pre-2020 Google Chromecast, which worked without a remote control. But Google has almost discontinued its Chromecast, and the latest smart TVs usually come with apps like Netflix pre-installed.
Users are angry about this, pointing out that Netflix has shifted its priorities over the years from bringing more users to its platform to maximizing subscription revenue by raising prices, prohibiting password sharing, and placing limits on how the service can be accessed.
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