Netflix has a new way to charge you for account sharing
Netflix doesn't want users to share accounts with other households. Now, the company has a new way of turning it into a feature – for an additional fee, of course.
The feature is called "add a home," and it allows users to buy additional "homes" with whom they want to share their Netflix account. Each home incurs a monthly fee on top of your regular subscription fee, but that fee ($2.99) is considerably less than the cost of a full Netflix subscription, so it still allows a couple of households to save some bucks on Netflix.
The feature also includes watching Netflix on tablet, laptop, or phone while you travel. Netflix also says that a new setting is coming soon, giving users the ability to control where their account is being used, as well as remove additional homes at any time.
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According to Netflix's Help Center, the feature is launching on August 22. Netflix points out that it will not automatically add homes and charge a fee when someone is sharing their account with another household; instead, users will be asked to add homes and approve the additional fee.
There are a few limitations as to how the feature can be used. For example, one account will only be able to add a certain number of extra "homes," depending on its tier: Basic accounts will be able to add one extra home, Standard accounts will get two, and Premium accounts will get three.
As for how Netflix detects the extra homes, the company's FAQ says it uses " information such as IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity."
The new feature is different from the "add extra member" feature Netflix launched in a few countries in March 2022, which allowed users to add sub accounts for up to two people they don't live with.
The "add a home" feature is also limited to a few countries – namely, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
According to Netflix's Director of Product Innovation Chengyi Long, who shared the news in a blog post, "widespread account sharing between households undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve our service."
The change comes shortly after Netflix announced that it lost subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 (a first for the company). In June, Netflix also said it's considering adding an ad-supported plan at a lower cost than the standard streaming plan.
Topics Netflix
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
