iPhones finally catch up to Android in Netflix binging ease

Apple’s infamous innovation sometimes includes poaching features Android users have enjoyed for a long time. Seeming no-brainers like home screen app arrangement and Quick Settings customization took quite a while to land on iOS. But sometimes iPhones’ lagging feature set falls on third-party software developers.

That was the case with Netflix’s willingness to let you binge an entire season at once. At long last, Netflix for iOS and iPadOS lets you download the whole season with a single tap, like Netflix for Android has for a while. Now, iPad users can get straight to hours of serial entertainment, without any extra pesky, time-wasting menu navigation or downloads. We’re truly living in streaming’s golden age (Source: Netflix).

Viewers talked, Netflix listened

Sometimes it really is the little things

It’s a simpler feature than Netflix’s new clip sharing, not quite as fun as board games and chill, and less devastating than yet another price hike. But Netflix insists considerable numbers of iOS users requested it, and it’s good the company listens. Apple can’t do all the innovating on its own, after all.

The company also talks, in this case about both Squid Game seasons, the One Piece anime, and historical/ahistorical series on Jeffrey Dahmer and Queen Charlotte, respectively, making up the platform’s five most downloaded shows ever. The relative recency of the five most popular downloads only reaffirms the service’s record subscriber numbers.

Does one-tap downloading make Netflix worth it again?

The growing subscriber base doesn’t exactly reflect the “stop bleeding us dry” tone sometimes heard surrounding Netflix tier restrictions and periodic price bumps. Netflix still provides its share of value, with a variety of fun Netflix Games offerings serving as one example. A subscription service with rotating games geared somewhat towards casual users sounds promising, if Netflix manages its gaming arm effectively. And, of course, everybody would appreciate it if the service would stop regularly giving popular and fun shows the axe after just two seasons.

You can find the new button for downloading entire seasons right next to the Share button on the show’s main display page. Hopefully, the admittedly small app update bringing Netflix binging on iOS in line with the Android feature set portends more user-friendly decisions. The service would see more goodwill, and could see even more subscribers, by loosening tier stipulations and slowing down cost inflation. Not that either seems likely.