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If you’re struggling to find something worth watching from Netflix’s vast catalog and don’t trust your friends’ recommendations, the streaming service has some good news for you.
The company is finally launching a “shuffle” feature for users who prefer to let an algorithm choose their next series to binge on.
The streaming service has confirmed that it will roll out the feature worldwide during a Q4 investor interview on Tuesday.
“Our members can basically tell us that they just want to skip the navigation altogether, click a button and we’ll pick a title for them just to play instantly,” said COO and Director of Products Greg Peters.
Peters hasn’t specified a launch date for the feature, but Variety reports that it will arrive 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 started spotting a “Random Episode” tag in their playback controls.
Further rounds of testing followed last year. In August, a number of users noticed that a shuffle button appeared on Netflix’s TV app, promising to “find things to watch according to your tastes.”
Random play on Netflix. It’s a thing… pic.twitter.com/Le1D3IxRwp
– Tom💙 (@tall_n_moody) Aug 18, 2020
Giving up your viewing choices to an algorithm can seem risky (even dehumanizing). But Netflix has already shown the value of its AI-based suggestions.
The company claims that over 80% of the shows watched on the service are discovered through its recommendation system, which analyzes your viewing habits to find new shows that you might like.
In an interview with Wired, Todd Yellin, vice president of product innovation at Netflix, compared the system to a three-legged stool:
The three legs of this stool are said to be members of Netflix; taggers who understand everything about the content; and our machine learning algorithms that take all the data and put things together.
The new shuffle feature now remains unnamed. Co-CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings jokingly suggested calling it “I feel lucky,” a nod to an old Google button that took users directly to the first result of their search.
“We’re going to find something better than that, so expect that,” replied Peters. “You will see him when he is deployed.”
Published January 20, 2021 – 19:32 UTC
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