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Netflix tool will stop mobile data overspend

Manny Pham
May 5, 2016

Netflix has introduced a new tool in their mobile app to stop you exceeding your mobile data allowance.

Netflix bingeing has become a major past time for most people in the 21st century. Now with mobile phones capable of amazing screen quality and fast 4G mobile data speeds, you can now carry your Netflix addiction with you on-the-go.

Well Netflix has noticed your House of Cards addiction. Director of Product Innovation, Eddie Wu said in a blog post: “we have seen big differences in how much people are streaming on smartphones and what kinds of mobile data plans they have.”

Netflix’s new data saving tool is rolling out right now for iOS and Android. The default settings on Netflix equates to 600kpbs, allowing three hours of content streaming for every gigabyte of data. If you only get 1GB a month, it’s best you lay off Netflix until you get home.

How to do it

  • Update your Netflix app. Go to the Play Store/App Store and search for Netflix. Once found select update
  • After the update, click on the menu bar in the top left of of your main screen and scroll down to ‘App Settings’
  • Select ‘Mobile Data Usage’ and finally select the most suitable option for your data plan.

netflix

“Our testing found that, on cellular networks, this setting balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees,” explained Eddie Wu. What wasn’t mentioned by Wu is that you can now increase the quality with mobile data, when it was locked to a default before.

It’s interesting to see Netflix introduce this data saving tool, it’s very much welcomed to save a lot of pain for customers.

We asked Netflix whether this new tool will help reduce server load, but have told us they cannot offer a specific comment on the topic.

For more on apps, visit What Mobile’s dedicated apps page

Image via Bloomberg.

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