If you’re struggling to find something worth watching from Netflix’s extensive catalog, and you do not trust your friends’ recommendations, the streaming service has good news for you.
The company is finally launching a “shuffle play” feature for users who would rather allow an algorithm to select their next series.
The streaming service confirmed that the feature worldwide during a Q4 investor interview Tuesday.
“Our members can basically indicate to us that they just want to browse completely, click on one button and we select a title for them to play right away,” he said. COO and Chief Product Officer Greg Peters.
Peters did not specify a launch date for the feature, but Variety reports that it will appear in the first half of this year.
[Read: How Netflix shapes mainstream culture, explained by data]
Netflix has been testing the feature since at least April 2019, when viewers spotted a “Random Episode” label in their game controls.
Further test rounds followed last year. In August, a number of users noticed that a Shuffle Play button appeared on Netflix’s TV app, promising to “find things you can see based on your taste.”
Shake plays on Netflix. This is a thing … pic.twitter.com/Le1D3IxRwp
– Tom💙 (@tall_n_moody) 18 August 2020
Surrendering your viewing choices to an algorithm can sound risky (or even dehumanizing). But Netflix has already shown the value of its AI-powered proposals.
According to the company, more than 80% of the apps viewed on the service are discovered through its recommendation system, which analyzes your viewing habits to find new apps that you might like.
In an interview with Wired, Todd Yellin, Netflix’s vice president of product innovation, compares the system to a tripod crutch:
The three legs of this stool would be Netflix members; taggers who understand everything about the content; and our machine learning algorithms that summarize all the data and put things together.
The new move function now remains anonymous. Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings joking suggested that it ‘I feel happy’, a nod to an old Google button that took users directly to the highest result for their search.
“We’re going to come up with something better, so here it is,” Peters replied. “You see it roll out.”
Published on January 20, 2021 – 19:32 UTC