Netflix detects when you’re asleep and pauses your video for you with new hack

Technology can solve big problems — the least of which is falling asleep during a movie and losing your place. Thankfully, Netflix staffers have created a solution for this by hacking a Fitbit device. Netflix staffers created a way to pause a video based on a Fitbit device’s sleep tracking feature. Any connected device can retrieve the data from a Fitbit — in this case, Netflix’s video controls. The Fitbit senses when a person is falling asleep and pauses the video.

A group of Netflix engineers have come up with a handy hack that ensures you won’t miss a minute of your favorite show should you doze off mid-episode. It uses a Fitbit activity tracker to communicate when a viewer has fallen asleep, pausing the programming at that point. It’s an incredibly simple solution to an incredibly common occurrence. Instead of having the show carry on with the possibility of waking you up, the feature means you don’t have to try and remember / skip to the exact moment you left off. Pretty clever, eh? Although hacks like this and others are pretty cool, it’s worth pointing out that they may never become part of the Netflix offering. As outlined in a statement on the matter, the company is only sharing them publicly to showcase the spirit of Netflix Hack Day.