Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Netflix Rolling Out iOS Update That Adds Bottom Tab Bar for Easier Navigation

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,530
39,364



Over the past few days there have been multiple reports of a new update to the Netflix app on iOS and Android devices, which includes a design overhaul for the streaming service's navigation bar on smartphones. Instead of placing every piece of navigation within the top lefthand corner "hamburger" menu, Netflix has introduced a simpler tab bar at the bottom of the app with four tabs for Home, Search, Downloads, and More.

netflix-update-ios.jpg
Netflix's hamburger menu (iPad) compared to the new bottom tab bar (iPhone)​


Previously, the left-handed menu housed profile switching, notifications, downloads, My List, and various themed categories. Now, these options are mostly located in the "More" tab, and Netflix has broken out Search and Downloads as a quicker method of jumping into those areas of the app. TV and film categories are also now located in the Search tab, including those Available for Download, Netflix Originals, Action, Dramas, Horror, and more. On Android, it appears that there will be an additional tab for users called "Coming Soon," displaying TV shows and movies launching soon on Netflix.

Apple encourages developers to use tab bars at the bottom of their apps in its Human Interface Guidelines, since they're easier to use one-handed and provide more information at a glance. Two years ago Spotify made a similar change, replacing its hamburger menu with five tabs for Home, Browse, Search, Radio, and Your Library, akin to Apple Music's tabs on iOS. Earlier this month, Google Maps added a bottom tab bar in its iOS app as well, so users could easily jump to Explore, Driving, or Transit information.

Netflix's rollout plan for the new tab bar remains unclear, with some iPhone and iPad users already seeing the update and others remaining on the older hamburger menu style.

Article Link: Netflix Rolling Out iOS Update That Adds Bottom Tab Bar for Easier Navigation
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/26/netflix-ios-update-tab-bar/
Apple was way ahead with this "tab bar at the bottom" navigation. It's always been superior to the hamburger slide out or top tab bars (which seems like a hangover from the desktop).

One previous issue was that the original 3.5 screen was so small that any extra UI chrome would eat into that screen estate. Still, bottom tab bar navigation has always been the better option.

(that said, still don't understand "+" and "Edit" in the top right corner :( )
 
  • Like
Reactions: haruhiko
Iconoclysm said:
Netflix's AppleTV app wastes massive amounts of space. You can literally only see one row at a time. Youtube's app isn't great but at least they don't devote 2/3 of the screen to a jpeg image.
Click to expand...

I'd prefer the clean UI and non gigantic jpeg images for previews. Also I heavily prefer ATV's 10 second previous/advance swipe+hold option on the remote as well as their scrubbing method vs ATV_YouTube app.
 
From a quality standpoint, Netflix has been steadily descending into hot garbage. There's still a lot of great content out there, but you have to wade through increasingly large piles of crap to find it. When they did away with any semblance of an actual rating system, and doubled down on their user-hostile UI with auto-playing videos, I knew the corporate greed had taken over completely. At this point I'm just hoping they fail as quickly as possible, and I'm actually counting on Disney and Apple to hasten that day. :eek:

EDIT: Sorry, that rant didn't have much to do with the post at hand. This UI tweak is actually great; I hated the old style.
 
I hate hamburger menus. They literally looked at the worst design mistake you can ever make, mystery meat navigation, and said “YES! LETS DO THAT!” And to add insult injury they even made it look like a hamburger
 
  • Like
Reactions: haruhiko and ingik
DeepIn2U said:
I'd prefer the clean UI and non gigantic jpeg images for previews. Also I heavily prefer ATV's 10 second previous/advance swipe+hold option on the remote as well as their scrubbing method vs ATV_YouTube app.
Click to expand...

I know this goes against all of today's design, but simply adding a settings option that lets us choose between a couple of UI's would be the greatest thing to ever happen on Apple TV.

Hulu's is the absolute worst, I can't even imagine how this crap made it past QA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U
It’s a welcome improvement, but still not enough to make it a great app.

Why didn’t they add ‘My List’ to the tab bar as well? To me that item is more important than the download section. The app also still kicks you out of the app when you attempt to access the account settings.

I personally also still hate the horizontal scrolling. I’d rather have vertical scrolling only (you can do this on the web version).
 
  • Like
Reactions: bigjnyc
I've had this for 2 weeks already on the iPhone. like it much better.... My only complaint is that they should have added "my list" as one of the options in the bar... instead of burying it in the more menu.
 
Last edited:
KALLT said:
It’s a welcome improvement, but still not enough to make it a great app.

Why didn’t they add ‘My List’ to the tab bar as well? To me that item is more important than the download section. The app also still kicks you out of the app when you attempt to access the account settings.

I personally also still hate the horizontal scrolling. I’d rather have vertical scrolling only (you can do this on the web version).
Click to expand...
Adding to this, it baffles me that we still can't organize our Lists on iOS or Apple TV. I've sort of given up caring at this point, but sometimes when I add a show to My List it shoots to the top, and other times it appears at the bottom. Why can't we have a simple "Edit" button to quickly swipe things to where we want them?
 
Hate it now I don’t get why developers do stupid **** like this, old way looked cleaner
 
Haven't looked at it yet but I'm quietly hoping for two things:

1. A ten second skip forward button, like the Amazon Prime app has.
2. a link to show just MOVIES, instead of intermingling movies with TV.

Anyone been able to confirm either? Yeah, I could check myself, but where's the fun in that?
 
erinsarah said:
Haven't looked at it yet but I'm quietly hoping for two things:

1. A ten second skip forward button, like the Amazon Prime app has.
2. a link to show just MOVIES, instead of intermingling movies with TV.

Anyone been able to confirm either? Yeah, I could check myself, but where's the fun in that?
Click to expand...

Nope.....you can go BACK 10 seconds, and movies and TV shows are mingled together...no break out. Lo siento.
 
So I'm guessing you still can't navigate an app that is designed to show videos landscape mode... in landscape mode...?!?!?!

Boggles my mind turning my phone orientation around in between videos...
 
DeepIn2U said:
Netflix ... just please do NOT screw up the AppleTV UI like Google did with their YouTube app. Please I'm begging you!!
Click to expand...

Netflix’s Apple TV UI is 100% pure *******.

Love ‘me for the video content, but their software warrants war crime prosecutions.

Worst use of space, horribly sized content thumbnails, obnoxious new auto-audio when browsing adds new lows in overall piss poor user experience, which already includes perhaps the worst content browsing of any modern media platform.

And the cherry on Netflix’s software failure is the absolutely stupid profile select screen you’re forced to click thru every time you select the app, even if your home is using only one profile.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back