Reports of a new game-changing feature Netflix is going to add to its service have already surfaced a few months ago and now it finally arrived. The streaming service added a new button to its videos, allowing the viewer to speed up or slow down the playing speed to their convenience.
The feature, which is currently available only on the android app, allows the videos to be played at as fast as 1.25X or 1.5X speed or as slow as 0.75X or 0.5X speed. According to people who have tested the feature, the quality of the content is not affected by the difference in speed. The feature is due to ve available on iPhone and on the web interface in the future.
Many had expressed their concerns about the variable playback speeds. Director Judd Apatow declared that “distributors don’t get to change the way the content is presented” when it was first announced. Other creatives who had spoken out against the idea include Breaking Bad’s star Aaron Paul and director Brad Bird.
Netflix said it took these concerns under advisement while developing the feature. “We’ve also been mindful of the concerns of some creators. It’s why we have capped the range of playback speeds and require members to vary the speed each time they watch something new—versus fixing their settings based on the last speed they used,” said a company’s spokesperson.
