Burn Less Data When Using Netflix on Android
Few things are eating up data limits as quickly as the new season of your favorite Netflix show, but Android users can now reduce the app’s impact on their monthly data limits without compromising video quality. This is all thanks to the open source AV1 video codec that Netflix now supports for Android streaming.
AV1 features improved video compression without degrading video quality, reducing Netflix data usage by up to 20 percent compared to Netflix’s other video codec, VP9. It can even improve video stability and quality when streaming over unreliable connections or bandwidth-constrained networks since AV1 requires less data.
While Netflix is rolling out AV1 to Android first, many other companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Nvidia also support the codec, so we’ll likely see AV1 roll out to other Netflix platforms and streaming apps soon. For now, Android users can switch to AV1 by enabling the Save Data option in the Netflix app:
- Open the Netflix app on your Android device.
- Select Menu> Application Settings> Cellular Data Usage.
- Turn on Save Data.
You can now stream with (potentially) reduced data usage. Gax notes that at first only some Netflix content will use AV1, and there is currently no way to check which codec the movie or TV series uses. However, some saved data is better than no saved data, especially if you don’t see a visual difference in what you are broadcasting.