If you have a rooted or unlocked Android, you might find yourself unable to download the app.
While the app itself seems to be working fine for those who already have it – it’s showing as ‘incompatible’ on Play Store, according to Android Police. Netflix has since confirmed to AP, issuing a statement noting “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.”
Widevine is a Google-made DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology that works across various desktop and mobile platforms. Widevine categorises devices into three security levels, ranging from all processes running in the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to not running anything in TEE at all.
However, according to AP, “the Play Store listing seems tied to a device’s SaftetyNet status (which is used by Android Pay), rather than the Widevine TEE. For example, Artem’s bootloader-unlocked stock Pixel is still on Widevine Level 1, the most secure level, but fails SafetyNet because it is unlocked.”
The latest update changelog notes “Version 5.0 only works with devices that are certified by Google and meet all Android requirements.”
Not sure if it’s going to suddenly stop working one day, but as of now, AP didn’t note any issues.
More about it on Android Police.
