Netflix has just upgraded its Android app, bringing it in line with recent upgrades for the iPhone and iPod touch and making the experience more like that available on tablet devices.
Chris Jaffe, director of product innovation at Netflix, introduced the “completely new Netflix experience for Android-powered phones” in a blog post today. Just like the updated Netflix app for iPhone and iPod touch, the new Android app displays more titles and recommendations on the screen for users to browse for what they want to watch. There’s also a ‘continue watching’ row at the top of the screen that shows recently watched content that users can resume viewing from where they left off.
As well as the usual recommendations, users can also access the browse menu for an extensive list of genres. These are then broken down into further categories to help users find exactly what they want; for example, the Children and Family section lists films and TV shows by age group.
Tapping on any title brings up its information panel, with a synopsis, details on actors, and a list of episodes available. A double-tap on a title jumps into instant playback.
Search has now been made available everywhere in application by tapping the search button.
Netflix recently reached 1m users in the UK and Ireland, showing faster penetration than Facebook and Twitter, and popular shows from RTÉ and more than 20 Irish films have recently been added to its ever-growing library of content.
The updated Netflix for Android app is available now for Gingerbread and newer operating systems.
