Good luck using Netflix if your device is rooted or running a custom ROM
Yesterday, some rooted users are finding issues with downloading the Netflix app on their various devices. There was some initial speculation that there was just a bug with the latest update, bringing the Netflix app to version 5.0.
Image courtesy of Android Police
However, it seems this was planned as Netflix has confirmed to the folks at Android Police that the app will no longer support rooted users. Here’s the statement that was given to AP:
With our latest 5.0 release, we now fully rely on the Widevine DRM provided by Google; therefore, many devices that are not Google-certified or have been altered will no longer work with our latest app and those users will no longer see the Netflix app in the Play Store.
This is huge news, considering the fact that there are LOADS of rooted users who use Netflix on a regular basis. For some reason, if the app was already installed on your rooted device, it continued to work without any issues.
Luckily, there is a way to downgrade the application to make it possible to continue using Netflix as normal. In order to do so, you’ll need to head over to the APKMirror listing, and then download the appropriate APK.
Let us know if you’ve run into any issues with the Netflix application and if you would like to see the company reverse its course on this matter.