Netflix is always looking for the best way to instantly connect users to something to watch, instead of wasting their time unsuccessfully browsing all available programming options. Now, the company says that a recent test focused on solving this problem, Shuffle Play, has proven to be popular enough to be distributed to all users worldwide.
In the streamer’s fourth quarter 2020 earnings announced today, Netflix mentioned product development only briefly. It largely referred to a test of a new feature that “gives members the ability to choose to instantly watch a title chosen just for them instead of browsing.” He also noted that the feature would reach all users worldwide at some point in the first half of 2021.
Netflix 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 something that is still being tested.
Shuffle Play places a large button right on the Netflix home screen, below your profile icon. When clicked, Netflix randomly plays the content that your personalization algorithms think you will like. This can include a movie you’re watching, something you’ve saved to your watch list, or a title that’s similar to something you’ve watched, for example.
A variation was also detected in the sidebar navigation of the TV application. More recently, we found this sidebar option renamed “Shuffle Play” instead of “Play Something” as before.
Also, as you start to scroll down on the Netflix home screen on TV, you’ll eventually find a screen that explains what the option is for and points to the new button with a red arrow.
“Not sure what to watch?” this page asks, before explaining how Shuffle Play works.
Image credits: TechCrunch
The button has already appeared in the Netflix app of some users for TV sets, due to ongoing tests.
In its letter to shareholders, Netflix said the user’s response to Shuffle Play was positive – which is funny because the original responses to the feature on social media were decidedly mixed. However, the company does not make its decisions based on what handful of tweets once said, but rather on how Netflix members actually used the product, of course.
Netflix also informs us that the feature is still being tested only on TV devices, and not on other platforms such as the web or mobile. He declined to say how many users or what percentage have chosen to test so far.
Shuffle Play is the latest in a long series of tests in which Netflix tried to make it easy to find something to watch right away.
In 2019, for example, Netflix experimented with a random mode that allowed you to click on a popular show to start playing a random episode. This may have worked well when users wanted to play a random episode of their default choice, like “The Office” or “Friends”, but Netflix lost both.
He also promoted his programs on the login screen and as screen savers, and famously played automatic previews until last year, when he finally gave in to user demand for a way to turn it off.
Overall, the goal is to bring the Netflix experience closer to traditional TV, where you can turn on the device and the content starts playing.
Netflix says Shuffle Play will be released globally in the first half of 2021, but did not share further details.