Netflix may soon let you watch partially downloaded shows or movies

If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you know that you can download a certain number of episodes of TV shows or movies to your device so you can watch them even when offline, But sometimes, for one reason or another, your download doesn’t finish and you won’t be able to play the video. You’re not connected or your data has run out so you need to wait before you can watch it. That may soon change as it looks like Netflix is preparing its Android app to let you play your partially downloaded content.

XDA Developers shared their APK teardown of the Netfix app. It is where they saw the strings that indicate that they may soon be adding support for playing partially download movies and TV shows. This is something that can be useful if you have limited mobile data or your WiFi connection is a bit spotty. Obviously you won’t be able to finish watching it especially if you’re totally offline, but at least you can watch part of it and wait until you get connected before continuing it.

This feature can also maybe help you with that pesky buffering thing. You can start downloading something for its first 30 minutes and then watch it first. After you’ve finished playing the partial download, connect to your data or wifi again to complete it. Then disconnect and finish watching, all without suffering from buffering but also being able to save up on your connection.

A few months ago, someone on Twitter suggested this feature to Netflix. While they replied and said they’re taking it into consideration, they were probably working on this feature even before that. Still, it helps to directly suggest stuff to brands and services since they might actually listen and work on what you were suggesting.

However, this feature hasn’t actually rolled out yet and may still be in the testing phase. A teardown is not always a guarantee that the feature will rollout, but hopefully this one will soon.