Last month, we reported on the bizarre decision by Netflix to unceremoniously kill the casting button inside its mobile apps. At the time, the move left many users baffled, especially as competitors like Apple TV were actively adding the feature to their Android ecosystem.
Now, thanks to a new report, we finally have a probable explanation for why the streaming giant abandoned the technology it helped pioneer: You just aren’t using it enough.
The “10%” problem
According to a report by Janko Roettgers for Lowpass (via The Verge), the decision to sunset the casting icon wasn’t an accidental bug or a licensing spat. It appears to be a cold calculation based on usage data.
Roettgers cites a streaming service operator speaking at CES who revealed that casting, once the lifeblood of mobile streaming, has seen a massive decline in engagement. The source suggests that currently, only around 10% of Android users still utilize the cast function to send content to their TVs.
While 10% represents millions of users globally, for a company of Netflix’s scale, maintaining a legacy feature for a shrinking minority often doesn’t make business sense.
From necessity to redundancy
To understand the drop, you have to look at how the living room has changed.
- Then (mid-2010s): Smart TV interfaces were slow, clunky, and frustrating. Browsing with a remote was a pain, making the phone the superior controller.
- Now (2026): TV operating systems (Google TV, webOS, Tizen) are faster and app-centric. Most users now instinctively grab the remote to open the native Netflix app rather than reaching for their phone.
Netflix likely sees the “second screen” experience as a relic of an era when TVs weren’t smart enough to handle the job on their own.
The report highlights another fascinating angle: Netflix’s growing interest in gaming.
As the company pushes deeper into interactive titles and cloud gaming, the phone is being repositioned not just as a remote, but as a game controller. Keeping the legacy “Cast” protocol, which was designed for passive video playback, might have added unnecessary complexity as Netflix tries to build new, distinct phone-to-TV interactions for its games.
The Apple TV irony
As we highlighted in our coverage last December, the timing here is incredibly ironic. Just as Netflix (one of the creators of the DIAL protocol that inspired Google Cast) backs away, Apple has embraced Google Cast for its Apple TV app on Android.
It signals a fragmentation in the market: while hardware-agnostic services like Apple TV are trying to be everywhere to gain subscribers, dominant players like Netflix are streamlining their experience, betting that their native TV apps are good enough for the 90% of people who have moved on from casting.
While the data makes sense, the removal still stings for enthusiasts. Casting remains the fastest way to beam content to hotel TVs, projectors, or older “dumb” screens. If this report holds true, Netflix has effectively decided that the convenience of the majority outweighs the utility of the power user.
