The feature, which will be launching for all Android devices, is designed so that all of you with chunky fingers don’t accidentally smack the pause button as you roll over in bed while not acting like a sensible person and just putting your phone down before getting comfy.
Okay, maybe the chunky fingers thing was a little rude. In our defense, we also have chunky fingers! It’s a side effect from sitting around all day fiddling with gadgets and computers. So when we crawl into bed at night and throw on a Netflix series onto our Android tablet for cosy night time viewing we’ve often accidentally skipped ahead 30 seconds in Ozark and missed some very important nugget of information. It can be frustrating, we know. Fortunately we won’t have to worry too much about that in the future as Android versions of Netflix will now have a “screen lock” feature.
Originally reported by 9to5Google, the option to lock the screen will now appear in the bottom left of your device when you start watching a show on Netflix. When you tap the option, the “play” and “pause” buttons will be disabled so you don’t have to worry about mistakenly tapping the pause button in the middle of a very dramatic action scene in Breaking Bad.
Now, The Verge has confirmed that Android system gestures do still apply even when screen lock has been enabled so it’s not a perfect system yet but it’s a step in the right direction though for peace of mind bedtime Netflix viewing.