Netflix ‘Play Something’ is a new feature that will randomly play a new series or film based on your tastes when you can’t make up your mind on what to watch.
The new feature which works like a shuffle button will also be able to choose a random series or film you’re already watching, or an unfinished series or film “you may want to revisit”.
Netflix has been testing out the feature for a couple of months now and is launching this feature globally on its TV app. It plans to test the feature on the mobile apps later this year.
You can find Netflix’s Play Something button under your profile name or in the tenth row on the Netflix homepage, and in the navigation menu on the left of the screen.
Once you press the Play Something button, Netflix will play a film or series based on your interests but won’t show a film or series that you’ve already completed.
When the Play Something feature is turned on it will be indicated with a border on the screen, and the button on the right side. You can press the ‘Play Something Else’ button to switch to the next series or film.
You can also go back to using Netflix normally by pressing the exit button on the top left corner of the screen.
According to Cameron Johnson, Director, Product Innovation, Netflix, the Play Something feature can play as many as 75 shows.
I think the big thing to emphasize is when you click Play Something it will always play a show that you haven’t watched before. So it’s designed for the moment when you wanna watch something new. We know that if you wanna watch the next episode of the show that you’re already excited about that’s generally very easy for people to do. But the moments where choosing is hard is when it’s something brand new. So right now we have some further innovations to do to understand how much we should base that on how much you have watched before or how much variety we should include.
