Windows 11 gets a new Netflix app – and it’ll make you wish you could keep the old one (spoiler alert: you can’t)
New take on Netflix app fails to impress in general and loses a key ability
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Windows 11users, watch out – a new Netflix app has arrived for the OS (as was previously promised), but sadly it isn’t a step forward for those who enjoy watching thestreaming serviceon their PC.
Windows Latestnoticed that the rejigged Netflix app is now available for download via theMicrosoftStore, but it’s a downgrade in many ways.
For starters, instead of a proper app, it’s now simply a web wrapper – in other words, it just fires up the Netflix.com site in a standaloneEdgecontainer. So, you’re basically running the website (in Edge) in what looks like an app window.
The second major blow to be delivered with the new app forWindows 11is that Netflix no longer offers the option to download content. That ability allowed you to watch yourfavorite showslater, when offline, but you can forget about that now.
Analysis: All in the name of consistency, apparently
The download ability was one of the major strengths of the Netflix app, and as you can imagine, it’s regarded as a big loss. What doesn’t help is that the app itself feels very barebones and indeed as Windows Latest points out, it’s shoddily put together. Right-clicking anywhere in the new Netflix app lets you access the menu to open a link in a new Edge tab, so it’s painfully transparent that this is all running in a web wrapper.
On Netflix’s part, the firm has previously said that the new app is designed for a “consistent, quality experience” and that the “new version will now include access to live events, compatibility with ad-supported plans, and more.” Well, if consistency is the key aim, why remove the feature to download and watch offline which is present on the Netflix mobile apps?
As you can guess, most of the feedback online has been pretty (consistently, ahem) negative. And if you were hoping to avoid the new app, and just stick with the old Netflix client complete with its download functionality – well, eventually the old app is going to stop working. In other words, you’ll be forced to update soon enough.
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All in all, this is a bit of a mystifying one, particularly given the apparently shoddy implementation of the web wrapper here, which feels rushed through, to say the least.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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