- For a couple hours on Friday morning, it looked like Apple and Netflix had patched up a frosty relationship.
- Turns out that’s not the case. Specifically: Netflix still isn’t integrated into Apple’s TV app.
- It’s worth remembering that Apple and Netflix used to be quite close. But now they are frenemies.
It’s my solemn duty to inform you that the Great Apple-Netflix Peace Treaty of 2025 is no more. In fact, it never was.
There are good reasons the sentences above might not make sense to you.
For starters, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the fact that Netflix and Apple, which used to be aligned, have been in a mild cold war for close to a decade. And you probably don’t spend a lot of time looking at fevered posts from Redditors who thought they discovered evidence of a Netflix/Apple rapprochement.
Luckily, you’ve got me. So here’s a story about a non-story that still tells us something about two of the biggest players in media and tech.
On Friday morning, people who use Apple’s TV app, and/or Apple’s Apple TV set-top box, noticed something strange: If they opened up their Netflix app, they got a prompt telling them to connect Netflix to the Apple TV app. That wouldn’t let you watch Netflix within Apple’s app. But it was supposed to let Apple tell you what was on Netflix, tell you what you were watching on Netflix, and suggest Netflix shows you might want to watch. I tried it myself and got the same result.
The reason this is notable is because Apple’s TV app inhales data about all of the streaming services you use — except for Netflix, which has stayed clear of the app since it launched in 2016. So it looked like the two companies had reached some kind of deal. Cue mild excitement:
Alas. There is no Apple/Netflix deal, say people at both companies who don’t want to be quoted. Instead, they chalk it up to a software bug. Move along; nothing to see here.
But the (admittedly weird) bug does give us a chance to remind you of the state of affairs between Apple and Netflix, which used to be warm but aren’t anymore.
Back in 2010, Netflix was one of the first big video apps to make its way to Apple’s iPad. A couple months later, CEO Reed Hastings appeared onstage at an Apple event to show off a Netflix iPhone app — a showcase Apple reserves for its biggest partners.
But six years later, Netflix steered clear of Apple’s new TV app — Apple’s attempt to create a TV guide for the streaming age.
That omission frustrated Apple TV users, but it made some sense from Netflix’s point of view: At the time, Netflix was the clear leader in the streaming wars. From its point of view, handing over its data to Apple — and letting Apple display Netflix TV shows and movies alongside other services’ shows and movies — seemed like something that would benefit its rivals, but not Netflix.
How Apple and Netflix became frenemies
And over the next few years, Netflix and Apple grew further apart.
In 2018, Netflix stopped selling subscriptions via Apple’s platforms because it didn’t want to pay Apple’s App Store fees. And in 2019, when Apple launched a new version of its TV app, which sold subscriptions to other companies’ streaming services, Netflix opted out of that, too.
“Apple’s a great company. We want to have people watch our shows on our services,” Hastings said. Not coincidentally: This was also when Apple launched its own streaming service, which made it and Netflix formal competitors for the first time.
Since then, the two companies have been frenemies. They run rival streamers, but Netflix’s presence on Apple hardware is important to both companies.
Which, on the one hand, made it seem plausible that the two companies had figured out a way to work together in 2025. On the other hand: Why would they?
Netflix is now the definitive winner of the streaming wars, which should give it even more leverage in its relationship with Apple and everyone else. Apple, meanwhile, seems primarily focused on its own streamer, and getting it onto as many platforms as possible — like it did this week when it finally launched on Google’s Android phones.
So maybe one day these two companies will find a way to work together again. But they don’t seem in a hurry to make it happen anytime soon.
