Netflix is ​​testing a ‘Shuffle’ button because you’re tired of choosing what to watch

Does your Netflix home screen – you know, the one with your user profiles – now have a “Shuffle” button?

This is because Netflix is ​​actually planning to bring a shuffle feature to its collection of streaming movies and TV shows, allowing you to avoid yet another argument with your spouse / roommate / partner / etc over what you are going to watch tonight. The company tells us that it has been running this test since July.

The company is already testing a few potential aspects of the feature, including the “Play Something” variant of which my colleague Julia Alexander took a brief photo below. But it looks like it’s not only an experiment: “The hope is to produce absolutely something,” a spokesperson said Variety. The company tells us that it is only available on “TV devices” for now. I haven’t seen it on my Roku.

When Julia turned the ‘Play Something’ button, it sparked a Netflix episode. Umbrella Academy with the explanation “because you watched Spider-Man.” (Both are about comic book superheroes and – depending on Spider Man are we talking, Julia? – received fairly well, so I guess that makes perfect sense.)

TechCrunch seems to have spotted the test first; As he points out, Netflix has already tested a feature that would show you a random episode of a specific TV series. It seems a lot more useful.

“We do these tests in different countries and for different periods of time – and only make them widely available if people find them useful,” a Netflix representative tells us.

Update, 8:02 p.m. ET: Added a comment from Netflix.