Netflix is reportedly working to improve its data consumption on mobile devices.
Android Police this week found a Netflix beta that included a feature called "Mobile Data Saver." Upon turning it on, users would effectively have their content resolution downgraded, so watching programming wouldn't eat up so much data.
In a world where tiered data plans are all the rage, Netflix's Mobile Data Saver could be an important feature. Netflix is, after all, the most popular streaming-video service in the U.S. When you're not on Wi-Fi, though, that can quickly eat into your monthly data.
Netflix isn't the only company thinking about preserving data. T-Mobile offers Binge On, which does not count video watching against monthly data buckets, but it downsamples the video quality so it doesn't consume too much data.
Android N, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system, also includes a Data Saver, which lets you control which apps have unfettered access to data connections, following the path started by Marshmallow to put control over app behavior into the hands of users.
According to Android Police, however, Netflix may have had an itchy trigger finger. While Mobile Data Saver has been cropping up from time to time on select accounts as part of testing, Netflix has been tight-lipped about it. This week, it seemed that more people could sign up for the program to see how it works.
By Tuesday morning, however, Mobile Data Saver's beta program was unceremoniously removed from Google Play, where it was first made available. Netflix has not turned it back on. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: pcmag.com
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