Netflix users who, for whatever reason, prefer to use the service’s Windows app are suffering in the long run. a much worse user experience than what other apps offer which allow access to the service from other systems and devices. I’ve always thought it’s because their usage volume must be pretty low compared to others, though I’m also curious as to what is cause and effect.

In this case, it seems the dean of streaming platforms decided it was time to sort it out, which is undoubtedly excellent news especially for subscribers of the advertising supported plan, and that it is impossible to get to it with the current version. Something somewhat surprising, given how wildly successful it is according to the company itself. It’s never too late if joy is good, and in this case, according to what they say, this update will also make the app compatible with live events broadcast through the platform.

However, it seems that not all is good news because, as we read in Cybernews, The new Netflix app for Windows won’t let you download content, this means that it will finally be compatible with the latest subscription modality, but in exchange it will remove a feature highly valued by many of its users. Although the company has not provided any explanation in this regard at this time, everything indicates that the main reason is the change in the type of application (from “traditional” to Progressive Web Application, WPA).

Be that as it may, there is no indication in the message that some users are starting to see that this loss of functionality is temporary. The text, which begins by informing about the future application and its benefits, ends with “Downloads will no longer be supported, but you can continue to watch TV shows and movies offline on a supported mobile device”, so if you want to be able to download content for offline viewing, you will need to do this on mobile devices that have support.

This is evident Providing access via a Windows app to ad-supported plan users was more than necessary, and that’s why it’s a positive thing. However, the fact that this translates into the loss of a very valuable platform feature for app users seems like a big mistake to me. Although, again, only Netflix knows the usage numbers well, so if they made this decision, I want to think they knew the impact would be low.