Netflix Launches Android App For Select Phones

Update: Netflix's Roma De on the Netflix blog: "We are aggressively qualifying phones and look forward to expanding the list of phones on which the Netflix app will be supported. We anticipate that many of these technical challenges will be resolved in the coming months and that we will be able to provide a Netflix application that will work on a large majority of Android phones."

Netflix just posted a link to the Netflix for Android App on the Netflix website, and if you have a compatible (see below) Android phone you can download the app from the Android Markeplace.

1. HTC Incredible with Android 2.2 
2. HTC Nexus One with Android 2.2, 2.3 
3. HTC Evo 4G with Android 2.2 
4. HTC G2 with Android 2.2 
5. Samsung Nexus S with Android 2.3. 

Here are some screenshots of the Netflix app on Android from the Marketplace (I don't have a supported phone):

If you're going to stream movies over 3G you should keep an eye on your bandwidth. The Netflix website warns, "Streaming over 3G can use a significant amount of data. Contact your service provider regarding your available data plans and charges."

I'm a big fan of both the Apple iOS and Android platforms, but the lack of platform-wide playback on Android gives the Apple iOS devices a slight edge (I wouldn't be happy if I owned a non-supported Android phone right now).

via Engadget, reader Gary, and everyone else who sent this in.

Comments

[Christian Calaway]

I'm not very happy right now. Not at all! I was so excited and then I went to the site and saw my phone was not supported. This app rollout is a big FAIL in my opinion. How do you not support the Droid X? My limited knowledge of the technology leads me to believe it has something to do with my Droid X's processor, but seriously Netflix? Come on! You're disappointing a large segment of your audience with this lame rollout. I hope it's available to us soon, but something tells me I'll have to wait months instead of days. FAIL!

[Edward R Murrow]

If you ask me, it's kind of an oxymoron to stream tired old content on a bleeding edge, cool mobile platform. Kind of like playing a PS 1 game on a PS 3 console.

[Complication]

I wish it had the DVD queue. I'm not that interested in streaming to my phone. I would however like to quickly add titles to my DVD queue as I come across them (or make sure they are already there).

[tdischino]

Disappointed as well that my phone (Evo Shift) is not supported, when the EVO is. My understanding is that the limitation is based on implementation of DRM. I find it hard to believe that an older phone (EVO) has better DRM implementation than a newer one (EVO Shift). Hopefully someone will figure out how to get this working on rooted droids.

[Tester]

I just installed it on my Evo 4G and it's freaking great! The picture is rock steady, no re-buffering so far and the load time, for the movie, was very fast.

I truly hope they soon make this app available to the rest of the Android market.

[Tester]

@ Edward R Murrow:

I respect opinion but that's not how I feel. My opinion is it's great to be able to stream Netflix on my Evo.

[Shoobe01]

Color me another disappointed. I have three Androids (I do mobile design for a living. I have around 40 phones) and none are supported. Weak.

Worse, it's not like they seem to have worked hard to get new phones to support it. The wife is probably going to get a Sanyo GzOne Commando, because she needs the ruggedized, and they have done well in dumbphone.

However, she also wanted to replace the iPod-Touch-glued-to-a-Clearspot solution for mobile movies we currently use. This is the sort of thing that might make her not get that phone. Or a new smartphone at ALL. Why bother if the killer app is not available, and may never be?

[ScottZ]

@Christian Calaway and other Android Users.

Don't hate on Netflix for this. If it were up to Netflix they would probably stream to any device. It is the content owners that mandate Netflix use DRM your phone doesn't support.

Additionally, this problem is partially the consumers fault for your decision to use the Android OS which sits on a fragmented hardware platform. Support for certain applications will often roll out slower and staggered due to variations in hardware and capabilities.

Let me add that Netflix works great on my 3yr old iphone 3G that was purchased before Android was an option.

[Kealani Smith]

That's Netflix for ya - doing one marvelous thing after another. Keep it up. The App for Color Nook would be a great next step!

[pwrof3]

Is it really THAT important to watch a movie or tv show on your phone?
When does anyone have time to watch a tv show or movie when not at home?

[Jvillarreal2]

HA HA HA! waiting for the nexus s paid off! Its awesome!

[Really???]

The Droid, Droid x, Droid pro, galaxies, and a few others will be coming out here soon too, based on their popularity and market saturation. I believe Netflix wants to do this in a small release at first to see how well the DRM holds up and how fast it takes users to basically "break it" to put on other phone. That's the downside of have an open-ish OS on your phone.

[FearNo1]

Comments in the engadget article claims there is a way to get the app to work on more android devices.

[Jeff Hay]

Wow. Totally wasn't expecting these phones to be supported.

[William]

FearNo1 is correct. There is a very easy way to get a lot of other non-supported phones to work with this installer. It does require root, however.

ScottZ, the issue isn't one of hardware. As you so keenly pointed out, your antiquated iPhone runs Netflix just fine. So does almost every Android phone out there. The issue isn't one of the hardware not being able to handle it. The issue is that the OS is so open, it is simple for someone with the know-how to tap the stream and "steal" the movie.

And fragmentation is really a poh-tay-to puh-tah-to thing. You call it fragmentation, I call it "choice of hardware". Android is *all* about choice and customization. Something that is very controlled and limited on iPhones.

[Tbob1.wordpress.com]

Wow, that came out of the blue. Wasn't expecting to hear this; I thought only newly manufactured phones would support this app. I've got a year old Evo upgraded to 2.2 and downloaded it tonight. Streams flawlessly from what I can tell so far. I can sympathize with the disapointment if your phone isn't on the list though. As long as Sprint keeps unlimited data plans in effect this should be a nice app. Probably won't use it a lot but nice to have for those times I'm out and about with time to kill.

[Eric_Rosario]

Works great and I'm loving it.