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Netflix now supports Android Wear, but it's not the remote control you're hoping for

Netflix now supports Android Wear, but it's not the remote control you're hoping for

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Now pushing social recommendations to your wrist

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One of the cooler things you can do with an Android Wear smartwatch is remotely control media-playing apps on your connected Android device. SoundCloud is a great example of this, using the watch to display the cover art of what you're listening to and some basic volume and playback controls. Netflix's latest Android update sounds like it would do the same, with the company promising to let you "play" videos using the watch, but it's actually much narrower in functionality.

Netflix is adding the social recommendation features that were first introduced in September to Android now, and it's extending them to Android Wear watches. That means your friends on Facebook will be able to send you notifications for things you can watch, and those messages would then be pushed to your Android Wear watch where you have the option to open them on your phone or thank your buddy for the tip. If you're already playing something on your Android device and pause it, another notification will appear on the Wear watch to let you resume, but that's all. The options to browse, select, play, or pause videos — i.e. acting like a basic remote control — are not included in this app update. And that's a darn shame, because we can imagine a delightfully futuristic scenario when combining a real Android Wear Netflix remote control with something like the projector-equipped Yoga Tablet 2 Pro. Guess there's always the next version for that.