Netflix Windows app is set to remove its downloads feature, while introducing ads

Technology@lemmy.world – 966 points – 6 months ago

Thanks a bunch, Netflix – its Windows app is about to lose downloads

Netflix has managed to annoy a good number of its users with an announcement about an upcoming update to its Windows 11 (and Windows 10) app: support for adverts and live events will be added, but the ability to download content is being taken away.

Netflix must realize that it's a huge frustration for people who relied on offline downloads to watch content without internet access: on planes, trains, and campsites, and anywhere else where Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable.

There's a small chance that Netflix will change its mind if it gets enough complaints, but the streaming service seems determined to add as many money-making features as possible, while taking away genuinely useful ones.

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I agree. Whether they claim that it's to reduce bloat or to get people to create a Samsung account, they really should have included https://apps.samsung.com/appquery/appDetail.as?appId=com.android.samsung.utilityapp as core functionality. You should also look at https://apps.samsung.com/appquery/appDetail.as?appId=com.samsung.android.goodlock

What bothers me the most about that is how they use double-speak to try to have it both ways - like Samsungs are both supposed to be "great", and also those features are claimed to be "optional", but when you try to go without an account... suddenly you find that much of the phone isn't "great" anymore:-(.

Also, why not allow downloading of such a 100% "free" app without needing an account?

Also, why need an app at all to stop the phone from getting hot just from holding it in your hands and trying to surf the F-ing web with it!? I mean, even if I had an account, that's still effort and more importantly attention I have to expend to make the phone minimally viable...

I'm more used to Apple product I suppose, which truly do "just work" right out of the box. Or replacing the OS on an Android phone, so trying to use it like the former when I clearly should do the latter I guess is my fault. But it also does not absolve them from gatekeeping their product behind a "store" concept, which they clearly are trying to suck me in with the promise of a few freebies and then hope that I stick around to purchase more and more products. The commercialization of it all just turns my stomach.:-(

In any case, thanks for the links! If I take the time to register in the store those sound helpful.