Netflix always tries to improve its services, and after expanding to over 130 more markets and completing its full transition to the cloud, now the streaming firm is working to improve the mobile experience of its users, starting with Apple’s iPhone.
Making it simple to binge-watch Netflix shows on mobile
Netflix disclosed at MWC 2016 that all iPhone and iPad customers will now get an improved experience in watching movies and TV shows, says a report from Business Insider. The latest update includes an auto-play function which enables mobile devices to play the next video of a show automatically.
Netflix Vice President of Product Innovation Chris Jaffe said the notion behind this is to make things “really, really stupid simple.” Android users will get this feature on their phone later this year, but when it will be available is unspecified.
Also the design has been made “more fluid” for users to scroll between shows and movies on the homepage. After the update, images that took a while to load will appear a lot faster. Jaffe said the application usually does its best to give you the highest-quality experience, but that can obviously use up a lot of data if users are not connected to Wi-Fi.
Encouraging users to stay in the app
Netflix came up with an interesting feature called “Autoplay Video Trailers” to convince users to stay in the app. The streaming firm has approximately 90 seconds to convince users to watch something before they give up, the company told BI. The autoplay trailers will probably help. This feature could also help users in discovering new content, thus addressing one of the main problems of users.
Netflix will offer a shorter version of the trailer so that users can quickly move to a different title rather than the full trailer. A movie trailer will only begin if a user wavers over a title for a few seconds. The service is still being tested and should be made available to all Netflix users in the coming future.
Also sometime later this year, the streaming firm will allow iPhone and Android users to manually mark their mobile data usage preferences for watching Netflix. The application will allow HD streaming, but as part of the data saving mode, there will be lower bit-rate videos.
