Though the Netflix app is largely the same on most platforms, over the weekend several Apple TV users on the unofficial Apple TV Reddit noticed some small changes to the TvOS version of the app that are making the app harder to use in subtle but very frustrating ways.
According to user iamonreddit, the most recent Netflix app update has made it slightly more difficult to use the fast-forward and rewind functions. Instead of clicking the back or forward button on the remote wheel to advance or return ten seconds, this button press now pauses the screen and brings up a frame selector. In order to actually go forward or go back, users then have to click the same button again. So essentially, what once required a single button press, now needs two.
Muscle memory is a hard thing to shake
This most recent update to the Netflix app aims to further separate Netflix’s own media player from that of the native Apple TvOS player. Apple TV users have been largely critical of this trend, as the gestures they have used for years to play back video (not just on Netflix but from other streaming apps as well) suddenly don’t work.
And while this latest update on the surface simply replaces one button press with two for a fairly straightforward operation, many Apple TV owners find themselves increasingly annoyed by these little changes that do nothing to improve Netflix’s app or media player, and instead just make it harder to use in small, annoying ways that can be hard to adjust to, especially for longtime Apple TV owners who have been using the same gestures for the better part of a decade.
Can this update be uninstalled?
Unfortunately, there’s no going back
If you’ve had the misfortune of experiencing this Netflix app update for Apple TV, unfortunately you are stuck with it. Though complaints about the loss of one-click advance (or return) functionality have been loud, it doesn’t look like there will be any updates that will address it, especially as this update brings the Apple TV Netflix media player in line with other Netflix media players on devices like Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, etc. which all have the same two-click functionality.
Though some on the original Reddit thread have threatened to cancel their Netflix subscriptions over the overall worsening of the Netflix media player on Apple TV, it seems doubtful that there will be enough of a backlash for this change to be undone. Then again, with a new Apple TV coming soon, maybe there’s a chance for the streamlined experience to return in some form once Apple’s long-awaited upgraded hardware finally arrives.
