Netflix for Android gets a very useful feature

Netflix for Android’s latest feature addition is one that will make anyone who has used the mobile app to continue watching their favourite show on the go (or, like I always do, at home when there is a blackout), scream “finally!”

It has always annoyed me that most video players, especially the ones that come pre-installed on the devices we buy and use, mostly developed by the device makers themselves or their close partners, don’t have this feature. VLC for Android, at least, has had this feature for as long as I have used it.

Now that we live in an era where it’s cumbersome, at least for some of us whom technology has made lazy, to go through the hustle of downloading content elsewhere and then transferring it to our phones for binging later or doing all of that on the phone, how about the same feature follow us where we are?

Locking the screen to prevent accidental taps that can result in some inadvertent actions like pausing, forwarding or rewinding (my worst: going to the next episode) of whatever one is watching on Netflix is now possible.

The feature has been live over the last few hours without any pomp or announcement from the video streaming giant. Users just noticed it. In fact, it did not even require an updating of the app (which means that anyone with the latest version should already have it), pointing to a server-side change.

Whatever the means used to get it to us, we are glad that it is here and it is working.

When watching something on the Netflix for Android application, just tap anywhere on the screen and one of the controls that will show up will be “Screen lock”. Clicking on it results in the entire screen being locked i.e. not responding to anything else and letting you enjoy your content uninterrupted. The only button that will work will be the lock icon which can be used to disable the screen lock.

Of course, the usual suspects, the notifications bar and the navigation buttons will continue working letting users do things like check the time, notifications etc and exit the app if they have to.