Netflix quietly rolled out a custom video player on tvOS last week, replacing Apple’s native playback controls, and Apple TV users are not happy about it.
It seems like one of the biggest complaints with the update is that what used to take a single click on the Apple TV remote now takes two or three. Instead of jumping back 10 seconds, pressing the button pauses playback and opens a frame selector. You have to click again to actually move. Reddit users on r/appletv started pointing out this regression a few days ago.
That alone is pretty bad. But the list of missing things goes further. The skip-intro button is gone when using the iPhone as a remote. The show progress bar has disappeared from the Now Playing widget on both iPhone and Apple Watch. The live activity widget that used to appear on your iPhone lock screen while something was playing on Apple TV is also broken. Captions, which previously toggled on automatically when you rewound a few seconds, now require several extra steps.
John Gruber at Daring Fireball called it “gratuitously ugly” and pointed out that the new player doesn’t support tvOS accessibility shortcuts that Apple’s native player handled out of the box. Pocket-lint was among the first outlets to write it up, citing the original Reddit reports.
Users on r/appletv have speculated Netflix moved to its own player to tighten control over viewing data, the kind of behavioral tracking Apple’s native player doesn’t hand over. Netflix hasn’t said that publicly, but the specifics are hard to read any other way. Still, treat this is pure speculation for the time being.
It’s a tough sell regardless of the reason, because Netflix also announced price increases the same week. Premium is now $27 a month. Standard is $20. The combination has pushed a fair number of users into actually canceling, or at least loudly saying they will. The r/appletv threads from the past few days are full of it. One user shared their frustration, saying, “They clearly don’t want us to have anything close to a good user experience.”
It’s also worth noting that Netflix still doesn’t integrate with Apple TV’s Up Next feature, so shows don’t appear in the watchlist alongside content from other apps. That’s been a frustration for years, and the new player hasn’t changed it.
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Dwayne Cubbins
1454 Posts
For nearly a decade, I've been deciphering the complexities of the tech world, with a particular passion for helping users navigate the ever-changing tech landscape. From crafting in-depth guides that unlock your phone's hidden potential to uncovering and explaining the latest bugs and glitches, I make sure you get the most out of your devices. And yes, you might occasionally find me ranting about some truly frustrating tech mishaps.
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