What you need to know
- Netflix is rolling out support for Spatial Audio.
- Viewers will now be able to enjoy audio in Dolby Atmos when watching on the Netflix app.
Spatial Audio, which allows you to listen to content in surround sound, has been supported by Apple's own services like Apple TV+ for a while now. However, it has been missing from competing streaming services - most notably Netflix, the dominant streaming service out there right now. Thankfully, that is finally changing.
As spotted by iGeneration, the latest update to the Netflix app is rolling out support for Spatial Audio on iOS (translated from French):
Netflix finally seems to be supporting space audio in its iOS app. Depending on the content you are watching, when you go to the volume adjustment of the Control Center, you will either have the active "Space Audio" indicator or the "Convert to spatial stereo". The latter is linked to iOS 15, the next system will try to reproduce a semblance of spatialized sound on content that is not originally adapted.The interface also emphasizes, in the first case, that the audio track is played in Multichannel and in the other that it is a banal stereo.
In order to see if you currently have access to Spatial Audio with the Netflix app on iOS, make sure you have it updated to the most recent version. When you check your audio settings when watching compatible content, you should be able to see that Spatial Audio is turned on.
For content that supports audio technologies like Dolby Atmos, movies and television shows will begin to play in surround sound when using compatible headphones. Apple's AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, for example, both support Spatial Audio.
Apple has been expanding the use cases for Spatial Audio since it launched the feature, most notably bringing support to Apple Music back in June. The feature has received mixed reviews, but the issue has appeared to lie in the mix for certain songs, prompting engineers to try their hands at remixing their songs and re-releasing again to better reception.
Bottom line: AirPods Max provide a luxurious and premium headphone experience that mostly works across all of your Apple devices. They sound amazing, the ANC is even better than AirPods Pro, Spatial Audio is out of this world, and the battery lasts through a whole workday. The Smart case is ridiculous though.
