Netflix Rolling Out Shuffle Feature Called “Play Something”

Netflix is giving fans a feature called play something and a lot of users are taking notice. The Internet has been asking for a shuffle function on the site for ages, and it looks like they’ve gotten their wish with this innovation. Right beneath your profile icon, the universal symbol for mixing it up is right there waiting to be pressed. Netflix has never been one to leave their user interface alone, while it has prodded and poked the sidebar before, this presents a deeper departure from the physical choosing of titles. Some users won’t see any problem with that, while others think it’s a poor substitute for channel surfing. Even more interestingly, Netflix decided to give TV users the update as well. That would be considered something of a rarity for the company until now.

In some more user-friendly news, the company is trying to make it easier for people who aren’t using their subscriptions. There probably aren’t a ton out there, but for those who aren’t getting the most use out of their money, it will be a welcome change.

“A very small percentage of our members have not watched anything for the last two years and although we make it easy for people to cancel their subscriptions with just a few clicks, they have not taken advantage of that ability,” the letter written by the company reads. “So we decided to stop billing them and will do so for members meeting the same criteria going forward.”

“While this change resulted in a slight hit to revenue, we believe that pro-consumer policies like this are the right thing to do and that the long term benefits will outweigh the short term costs,” it continues. “In a world where consumers have many subscriptions, auto-pause on billing after an extended period of non-use should be how leading services operate.”

CEO Reed Hastings said during a previous earnings call, “I think of it as, when someone churns, it’s always temporary. They’re gonna come back. It’s just a matter of timing as our service gets better, as maybe their income increases, as the internet gets faster. We love people to get a taste of Netflix. We hope they stay for 50 years.”

Will you be using the Netflix Shuffle feature? Let us know down in the comments!