Netflix has announced the launch of a ‘Manage Access and Devices’ feature, which will allow user account owners to remotely log out of devices they don’t recognise or no longer want signed in to. The move follows the California-based company’s host of decisions that were designed to limit account or password sharing between users. The American subscription streaming service and production company said that the move is taken in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season and the probable increase in travel and movement that is traditionally seen around this time of the year.
According to Netflix, all the movement may let users forget to log out of the devices they recently logged in to with their accounts. The newly introduced ‘Managing Access and Devices’ section on the Account Settings menu will allow users to view recent devices that have been used to stream data using their account and also give the owners an option to log out of specific device through a single tap.
The newly introduced feature is available to users around the world on Netflix’s web, iOS and Android platforms, confirmed the company through a blogpost.
In October, the company announced a feature that would allow users to transfer their profiles from an existing account to a new one, while retaining personalised recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and other settings from their previous profiles.
The moves come on the back of the company reporting financial woes which triggered a loss of subscribers for the first time in over a decade. However, in the latest quarter, Netflix has managed to reverse customer losses and provided a slightly more bullish outlook than predicted.
Netflix also announced the launch of a Basic with Ads plan in November. The new lower-priced ad-supported plan was made available in 12 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the US.
Netflix Co-CEO, Reed Hastings had long resisted advertisements on the streaming platform. “Those who have followed Netflix know that I have been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I am a fan of that, I am a bigger fan of consumer choice, and allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant to get what they want,” Hastings said during the company’s pre-recorded earnings conference call in April this year.