Netflix App for iOS No Longer Supports AirPlay Because of 'Technical Limitations' [Updated With Netflix Statement]

[EugW]

What is the difference between casting and Airplay? How does one "cast" on an iPhone vs using AirPlay?

Press the cast button and it will send it to an Android TV or Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV or whatever. It’s not using an AirPlay-like method though since the video is playing natively on the device. Your iOS device is effectively just functioning as a remote with casting.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Why would anyone use Airplay to watch Netflix? Not being snarky. Honestly curious. Seems weird.

Say you are in a hotel room, most I'm staying in support Airplay on the big TV.

Or how about you share a room or space (like the hotel room) with multiple other people. Entering your own login details on all those devices is really not desired.

Just two that apply to me quite regularly. I'm sure others with have other reasons.

 

[code-m]

Netflix has it out for apple. It's irritating.

Has anyone confirmed if one can Cast from an Android phone to a display. If so, I call this a nonsense excuse.
[doublepost=1554644310][/doublepost]

What’s the point of AirPlay if there is a Netflix tvOS app? This seems like the most difficult way to watch Netflix, and probably suffers in performance.

If the app supports Cast it should support AirPlay. It would seems odd to support one over the other and quite telling.

 

[darkazcura]

Press the cast button and it will send it to an Android TV or Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV or whatever. It’s not using an AirPlay-like method though since the video is playing natively on the device. Your iOS device is effectively just functioning as a remote with casting.

Airplay works like this also. When you airplay (unless it is the screen mirroring), it is natively playing on the device.

 

[TonnyM]

It doesn’t look good for Netflix. I cancelled it some time ago anyway, because 90% of Netflix stuff is pure crap. There are few really good shows, but I wasted too much time going through all the bad once.

 

[binaryfuneral]

Silly question but who the hell airplays rather than just signing in on the tv app?

 

[steve123]

Follow the money. Netflix' meteoric rise has been fueled by growth of new customers. As that begins to slow, Netflix must make up for it by limiting services, differentiating services and increasing fees. It is the beginning of the end for Netflix. It was great while it lasted.

 

[prasand]

I use Chromecast anyway.

That brings up an interesting point. If casting still exists, then the argument that they are limiting "streaming only" users, from paying for a cheaper plan but still watching it on the TV, is invalid. And if casting to Android devices, doesn't kick back information of the device being casted to ... it renders Netflix's entire argument moot.

Aside that ...

Ultimately, I see Netflix's concern as valid. It's not in Apple's privacy approach to provide details of Airplay target devices. So the only way Netflix would be able to discern how each of their apps are doing, and how each device compares, is to remove Airplay. -- It's not like they removed the app from Apple TV or other devices, so it's not really a jab at Apple I don't think. It's a matter of Apple's privacy choices. I think people are just upset that their options have been limited.

 

[steve123]

Silly question but who the hell airplays rather than just signing in on the tv app?

I cannot believe the comments here. This is about security and privacy. When streaming to someone elses TV, do you want to authenticate your account on someone elses device? If that person is trusted, say a family member, then maybe. Otherwise, never.

 

[haruhiko]

You know what else has international presence? Piracy. Eventually people will be sick and tired of these consumer-hostile moves and the frequent price hikes.

If the legit way is more convenient than piracy, people will go the legit way. This is my personal experience.

 

[4jasontv]

Netflix still works fine via casting.

I understand the loss of AirPlay support will be a bummer for a few people but I suspect that 98% of Netflix customers just won’t care much.

Does casting work if the Netflix app isn’t installed on the Apple TV?
[doublepost=1554646496][/doublepost]

Unless Netflix explicitly say in there T&Cs that you can Airplay your subscription to a strangers TV without sharing your log-ins what you are doing is, at best, an undocumented advantage to you.

If they never said you can do this you have no right to be butt-hurt if they take it away.

That’s a twisted world view you have. Rights of the customer must be restricted not granted.

 

[jscooper22]

Apple's getting into the streaming video content market and Netflix sees them as a competitor. They know this and know WE know they know this. So why the BS lip service?

 

[mpuk]

Follow the money. Netflix' meteoric rise has been fueled by growth of new customers. As that begins to slow, Netflix must make up for it by limiting services, differentiating services and increasing fees. It is the beginning of the end for Netflix. It was great while it lasted.

Interesting comment. I suppose one could draw a similar conclusion regarding the Mac and MacBook range.

 

[Kabeyun]

Interesting comment. I suppose one could draw a similar conclusion regarding the Mac and MacBook range.

How about iPhones?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Press the cast button and it will send it to an Android TV or Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV or whatever. It’s not using an AirPlay-like method though since the video is playing natively on the device. Your iOS device is effectively just functioning as a remote with casting.

So you can cast to an Android TV or FireTV, etc., via an iPhone? Is that an iOS thing or something Netflix has added in?

I'd like to be able to cast from my iPhone my Plex media content when I am traveling. If I can just carry a FireTV stick to plug into the back of the TV and cast my shows, that would be good.

 

[cmaier]

If the Apple TV Netflix client were you let you download content, this wouldn't matter at all.

Well, at least for some people

but smart tvs have had netflix built in for ages. so they don't need airplay

Yes they do.

1) I download a bunch of Netflix shows for my kid onto my add. Travel to europe. The hotel tv has Netflix. I don’t want to enter my credentials because I don’t trust that setup, but even if i did, because of geoblocking, i couldnt watch those shows in europe anyway. Which is why i downloaded them onto my iPad. I used airplay. (In Italy, fwiw.) It worked fine back then.

2) We had an internet outage at our house for two days. We used an iPad with LTE to airplay Netflix onto the family room TV set. Now that won’t work.

3) We have apple tv’s hooked up to the conference room monitors in all our offices. They are primarily for displaying PowerPoint. As part of a group social activity we airplayed Netflix on two occasions. Management doesnt want to install the Netflix app, nor does management have a Netflix account, so someone would have to enter personal credentials even if they did.

4) Smart TVs will now increasingly have the airplay functionality built in. So now there are two choices: when traveling someplace (to a hotel, a friend, a family member, whatever) I can enter my credentials into some strange TV, or I can airplay. The latter is like in the old days when you’d just plug your game console or portable player into the tv with rca cables. Nothing to log in, etc. Much easier.

5) Some people have pointed out that they have cabins, vacation homes, time shares, etc. without external internet access or with expensive internet access. A pre-loaded or unlimited LTE iOS device is great in those situations.

Feature is not needed anyway. Netflix is on everything and remembers exactly where you were in a show.

Nope. See above.

The thing is each of those companies become an example to other companies that they don't have to swallow the garbage Apple is feeding them. As more and more companies understand this the less Apple has a hold over users.

Or vice versa.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Silly question but who the hell airplays rather than just signing in on the tv app?

Only those using it in hotels, communal areas, meeting rooms, you know everywhere where you don't necessarily have access to install an app, or the airplay device is shared with others and you don't want to leave your account details.

Why the hell would you not want to do that?

I use mine in hotel rooms for years now...

 

[EugW]

Does casting work if the Netflix app isn’t installed on the Apple TV?

Casting is to an Android device / Chromecast. For example, most Sony TVs run Android.

So you can cast to an Android TV or FireTV, etc., via an iPhone? Is that an iOS thing or something Netflix has added in?

I'd like to be able to cast from my iPhone my Plex media content when I am traveling. If I can just carry a FireTV stick to plug into the back of the TV and cast my shows, that would be good.

It's present in some iOS apps, including Netflix.

I use mine in hotel rooms for years now...

I don't think I've ever used this in a hotel room, and I suspect most others haven't either. Too unreliable to count on this. Way too many variables. In fact, I don't remember the last time I've used a hotel room TV that either had Netflix installed or ran Android. I also used to bring an HDMI cable to play video files from my laptop, but I gave up on that too since many hotels don't allow access to the extra HDMI port even if it's there.

I just watch on the device itself.

 

[reggierob2]

Technical limitations my derrière!

Not really any different than the technical reasons Apple doesn’t play nice in certain situations.

 

[cmaier]

Casting is to an Android device / Chromecast. For example, most Sony TVs run Android.



It's present in some iOS apps, including Netflix.



I don't think I've ever used this in a hotel room, and I suspect most others haven't either. Too unreliable to count on this. Way too many variables. In fact, I don't remember the last time I've used a hotel room TV that either had Netflix installed or ran Android. I also used to bring an HDMI cable to play video files from my laptop, but I gave up on that too since many hotels don't allow access to the extra HDMI port even if it's there.

I just watch on the device itself.

“I don’t experience the same problems as you so your concerns are invalid” ?

Many hotels now have smart TVs of various flavors, or apple TVs. Even the horrendous Hilton Newark Airport I just stayed at had smarttvs.

Not sure what “variables” you are referring to, either. When you’re stuck overnight in Rochester, NY with nothing to do, it’s nice to cast your iPad output onto the big screen while you eat your crappy room service.

 

[Dieseldk]

Has letting the user decide become so uncommon that companies have forgotten about that option?
[doublepost=1554635727][/doublepost]

Never been an option with Netflix, I understand why they might not want to change their app to support that.
Why don’t apple just let apps read info about resolution and supported modes of an AirPlay 2 device?

 

[EugW]

“I don’t experience the same problems as you so your concerns are invalid” ?

Many hotels now have smart TVs of various flavors, or apple TVs. Even the horrendous Hilton Newark Airport I just stayed at had smarttvs.

Not sure what “variables” you are referring to, either. When you’re stuck overnight in Rochester, NY with nothing to do, it’s nice to cast your iPad output onto the big screen while you eat your crappy room service.

I've never seen an Apple TV in any hotel, ever, in the last decade. Literally, never, not even one. Where did you see that? Or are you talking about an AirBnB or something?

Anyway, my point wasn't that it doesn't suck for you, but that very few other people will actually care. I mean if you already have an AirPlay device like an iPad or iPhone, that means you already have a device to play the video from. This is not going to impact Netflix's bottom line much at all, so I'm not surprised they went this direction.

 

[mi7chy]

Can't blame them for not spending finite resources on a feature with low market share especially after Apple has thrown them under the bus.

 

[2010mini]

Can't blame them for not spending finite resources on a feature with low market share especially after Apple has thrown them under the bus.

How did Apple throw Netflix under the bus?

 

[EugW]

As far as missing features in streaming video on Apple devices, the biggest for me is the lack of 4K support for iTunes streaming to Macs. It's lame.

The hardware has supported it since 2017, and in fact, Apple made a big splash about 4K HDR HEVC support on Macs and iOS at WWDC 2017, but Apple just refuses to support this in the OS for streaming video.