News

Netflix Is Introducing Sleep Timer Functionality On Android

Published

5 years ago

February 1, 2021

netflix is introducing sleep timer functionality on android

Do you often doze off while watching Netflix? If so, the streaming giant has a nice surprise for you: a sleep timer feature that lets you configure when you want Netflix to automatically stop playing.

This feature is currently available only in the Android version of the Netflix app, and only select Android users have access to it. If you see a clock icon in the top-right corner (right next to the Chromecast icon) while playing a video, that means you’re one of the lucky people who have been randomly picked by Netflix to test the sleep timer.

To activate it, you simply need to tap it and choose the preferred time setting. You can pick between 15, 30, and 45 minutes, and there’s also an option to stop playback at the end of whatever content is playing at the moment.

netflix sleep timer android

In November 2020, Android developers and power users at XDA Developers were among the first to receive the news about Netflix potentially adding a sleep timer feature in a future update when the following string was discovered in the resource files of Netflix 7.82.1:

<string name=”sleep_timer_button”>Timer</string>

Of course, Netflix isn’t the only streaming service that has introduced this feature (Spotify, Pandora, and other music streaming services have sleep timers as well). But none of its direct competitors, including Amazon Video, Hulu, and Display+, have made it possible for their users to set a sleep timer yet, so it definitely takes the lead there.

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Besides stopping your Android device from streaming video content until its battery reaches zero, the sleep timer can be useful if you like to watch Netflix while cooking, reminding you that your baked potatoes are ready. Once the feature leaves the testing phase and becomes globally available, we’re sure that Android users will come up with many more use cases for it.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

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Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.