Netflix is always looking for a better way to instantly connect users to something they can watch, instead of wasting their time by successfully browsing through all the available programming options. The company says a recent test focused on solving this problem, Shuffle Play, is popular enough to be introduced to all users worldwide.
In the streamer’s Q4 2020 earnings, announced today, Netflix only briefly noted the product development. It broadly referred to a test of a new feature that “gives members the opportunity to choose to instantly look at a title chosen just for them versus to browse.” It is also noted that the feature will reach all users worldwide in the first half of 2021.
Netflix has confirmed to TechCrunch that the test in question is Shuffle Play, which we first covered in August 2020. However, the company tells us that the real name of the feature is still being tested.
Shuffle Play places a large button directly on the Netflix home screen below your profile icon. When clicked, Netflix plays random content that the personification algorithms think you’ll like. This could be a movie you are currently watching, something you have saved on your watchlist, or a title similar to something you have already watched, for example.
There was also a variation in the navigation of the TV app. More recently, we found this sidebar option to be rebranded as ‘Shuffle Play’, instead of ‘Play Something’ as before.
If you also start scrolling through the Netflix home screen on the TV, you will eventually come to a screen that explains what the option is for and points to the new button with a red arrow.
“Do you not know what to look for?” ask this page before explaining how Shuffle Play works.
Image credits: TechCrunch
The button has already appeared on the Netflix app for some TVs on some users due to the ongoing tests.
In its letter to shareholders, Netflix said the response from users to Shuffle Play was positive – which is funny because the original responses to the feature were definitely mixed on social media. However, the company does not make its decisions based on what a handful of tweets once said, but rather in how Netflix members actually used the product.
Netflix tells us that the feature is still only being tested on TV devices, not on other platforms like web or mobile. It did not say how many users or what percentage has been selected so far in the test.
Shuffle Play is the latest in a long line of tests where Netflix has been trying to make it instantly easier to watch something to watch.
In 2019, for example, Netflix tried out a shuffle mode that allows you to click on a popular program to start playing a random episode. It may have worked well when users wanted to play a random episode of their default choice, such as ‘The Office’ or ‘Friends’, but Netflix lost both.
It also promoted its apps on the login screen and as screen savers, and infamous versions were played automatically until last year, when it finally gave in to users’ demand for a way to turn it off.
Overall, the goal is to bring the Netflix experience closer to that of traditional TV, where you can turn on the set and the content just starts playing.
Netflix says Shuffle Play will roll out worldwide in the first half of 2021, but has not shared any more details.