Netflix has supported downloading movies and TV shows for offline viewing on iOS for a while now, but the process has been a bit manual. Android gained automatic downloads last summer, and now the iPhone and iPad are finally catching up and gaining the handy feature.
Netflix announced the launch of its Smart Downloads features on iOS today on the company's blog.
Today, we are excited to introduce Smart Downloads. Now, when you finish watching a downloaded episode, Smart Downloads will delete it, and then automatically download the next episode.
Giving consumers more control over their entertainment experience is at the heart of everything Netflix does. Netflix launched Smart Downloads for Android users in July 2018.
"The faster our members can get to the next episode of their favorite stories, the better. Now, fans on the Netflix iOS app can get in on the fun and convenience of Smart Downloads, spending less time managing their downloads and more time watching. The feature is one more way we're making it easier for Netflix fans to take the stories they love wherever they go," said Netflix.
Netflix originally promised to bring the feature to iOS by the end of last year after launching it first on Android, but it clearly took a few months longer than expected to roll out. Be sure to grab the latest version of Netflix for iOS from the App Store before using the new feature.
Just like on Android and Windows 10, Netflix subscribers can manually turn the Smart Downloads feature on and off as needed. Smart Downloads also only works on Wi-Fi so there's no risk of using cellular data accidentally if that's a concern.
Netflix says device storage is also not a factor because the last watched episode in a series is always removed before then next unwatched episode in the series is downloaded.
Launching Smart Downloads on iOS is yet another way Netflix continues to improve the viewing experience for the users by making it easier for them to connect with the stories they love, and allowing them to take their favorite Netflix stories with them wherever they go.
Smart Downloads tries to be intelligent about which episodes to delete however. For example, if you have the first three episodes of a series downloaded, the feature will download episode four after you view episode three and automatically delete episode one while keeping the second and third episodes.
