Netflix Testing ‘Shuffle Play’ Button on TV to Assist Indecisive Viewers

Netflix is testing a brand new “shuffle” possibility to assist indecisive viewers decide a random title — a film or a TV collection — based mostly on what they’ve seen beforehand, the genres they like, and the titles they may have saved within the “My Record” row. The take a look at is being run worldwide with choose customers. In case you’re amongst these, you’ll both see a “Shuffle Play” button on the profile choice display, or a “Play One thing” possibility within the Netflix TV app sidebar menu. Netflix’s new shuffle take a look at is simply obtainable on TVs and has been experimented upon since July.

In an announcement to Selection, Netflix mentioned: “The aim of the take a look at is to make it simpler for members to seek out one thing to observe.” Netflix famous that it plans to study from these assessments and give you a everlasting “shuffle” characteristic that will likely be rolled out for everybody, and added: “The hope is to utterly productise one thing.”

In an announcement to Devices 360, Netflix added: “We’re at all times searching for higher methods to attach members with exhibits and movies that they are going to love. We run these assessments in numerous international locations and for various intervals of time, and solely make them broadly obtainable if folks discover them helpful.”

Netflix members have been reporting the existence of those assessments since mid-July on Twitter. Whereas “Play One thing” was trialled beforehand, “Shuffle Play” is at the moment the one model of the take a look at nonetheless in place, Netflix acknowledged.

TechCrunch was the primary to report on the brand new assessments from August, and famous that this was one more method for the service to assist subscribers rapidly discover one thing to observe, alongside TV app screensavers, vertical previews, profile display backgrounds, and pre-roll advertisements. Solely the primary two have caught round as everlasting options.

This is not the primary time that Netflix has experimented with a “shuffle” characteristic. In April final yr, it put a shuffle button on TV exhibits, letting customers watch a random episode of a collection they picked. The brand new shuffle take a look at is of course a lot broader in its functioning.