Entertainment
Netflix’s new “Play Something” shuffle button has to be its best feature yet
Never make a decision again!
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The new “Play Something” feature from Netflix is finally getting a release today. The new feature adds a button that will suggest something random for users to watch, based on your viewing habits.
This new feature was originally announced back in January, but today is the official rollout of the feature to all users. The feature has been tested across multiple devices over the last few months, and Netflix is confident that users are enjoying the new functionality.
The button will appear in several different places on the Netflix app, and will provide users with suggestions of what to watch, based on Netflix’s internal algorithms. If the suggested content is not appealing to you, you can select “play something else,” and the app will suggest a new program.
This new feature will help Netflix seem more like a traditional TV station, where similar programs are automatically played. This is in an effort to combat decision fatigue, where customers have a hard time figuring out what they want to watch, and ultimately end up not watching anything at all.
For now, the new feature will be rolling out to all TV-based apps, with a more broad rollout planned for sometime in the near future. According to The Verge, the company plans on beginning testing for the feature on Android devices very soon.
It is very interesting to see a feature like this come to Netflix’s streaming service. It seems like we’ve come full circle, with Netflix moving towards a more TV network-like approach.
Netflix was originally so successful because it cut the hassle out of television by letting users pick what and when they want to watch. Now it looks like people are again looking for help in making those decisions, and the “Play Something” feature seems to do just that.
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