The BBC has announced on Tuesday that its iPlayer will now support more Android smartphones and tablets. Users can download the updated app from the Google Play Store.
The latest update rolled out will ensure that more than 96 percent of Android users will now be able to download BBC iPlayer content for offline viewing.
The BBC’s latest move comes as part of the company’s Mobile Compatibility Programme, which aims to extend the same features to all Android users regardless of their device.
“In response to public demand, instead of our previous policy of comprehensively testing specific devices before enabling downloads, we are now offering video downloads functionality by default to all Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich or above,” the BBC’s senior product manager David Berlin wrote in a blog post.
Until now, the video download support was available only to a selected number of Android devices including both models of the Nexus 7 tablets, the HTC One (M7), Samsung Galaxy S II, S III, and S 4, among others. But, from now on all the Android tablets and smartphones running Android Ice Cream Sandwich or above will support the feature.
The BBC, however, confirmed that some users might experience issues with the new application initially, stating “We can’t promise that we will fix every issue that is brought to our attention (there may be device limitations that prevent us from doing so) but we will seek to address problems according to the complexity of the issue, as well as the UK popularity and the user numbers of the device itself.”
