After months of testing, Netflix is joining other video streaming services that offer more options regarding playback speeds. Subscribers who sometimes use the service on Android therefore have access to extra options that iOS and TV viewers do not have access to. The function has been tested since the end of last year.
Android viewers can play videos at 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x and 1.5x the speed of the normal video. The options are now rolling out to every Android subscriber, but it may take a while to get the update. The reason Netflix decided to add the capabilities is because users have asked for it.
These are not only users who turn on series in the background or people who want to watch films twice as fast. No, playing a video slower has advantages for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, for example. The subtitles are therefore a bit slower, so they get a lot more of what is happening on the screen. And that is actually a big advantage for a large group of people who cannot help but hear nothing or little.
Not everyone happy with Netflix’s decision
But in the meantime, many people are still criticizing Netflix’s decision. That criticism comes mainly from the creative side, so the people who are responsible for creating, producing and directing the content. The content that Netflix is of course only too happy to use.
For example, several tweets from all kinds of directors have appeared who express their dissatisfaction with a somewhat arrogant message and the request that Netflix reverses the decision. You can find one of those reactions in this article. It is logical that as a creator you are afraid that people will view your content in a different way than you intended, but there are simply people who cannot always follow everything, for example because of deafness.
Netflix has also responded to the criticism, saying that the options are only available for Android smartphones and not televisions. People consume content on small screens differently on large screens anyway, so this seems to be a kind of middle ground (although you can of course cast the content to your television).
Meanwhile, Netflix is still in the process of offering the new speeds for the web and the iOS application. But when you can get started with this has unfortunately not been announced.
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