Netflix Is Getting Overhauled With TikTok Style Videos and AI

Netflix has revealed a new redesign to the app that will introduce videos that borrow from TikTok, and an enhanced search engine that utilizes generative AI tools. Netflix has been the leader in streaming content and continues to re-evaluate the best way to deliver that content to subscribers. Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim and Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone announced the next evolution of Netflix with a new viewer experience intended to make subscribers’ lives easier with recommendations tailored to them. These changes will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months, but the Netflix execs explained what subscribers can look forward to on the new homepage.

Changes coming to Netflix include the addition of helpful information on titles, such as callouts for “Emmy Award Winner” or “#1 in TV Shows”; shortcuts to Search and My List being moved from the left-hand side of the screen to the top, where they’ll be more visible; better real-time recommendations; and a clean and modern redesign of the Netflix homepage.

As for the Netflix mobile app, its new features include generative AI search tools that will be an opt-in beta for iOS users. Conversational phrases like “I want something funny and upbeat” can be used to search for TV shows and movies. In the future, there will be a vertical feed filled with clips of Netflix shows and movies, which is where the comparison to TikTok comes in. A user will be able to tap to watch the whole movie or show, add it to My List, or share with friends.

“The new Netflix TV experience is still the one you know and love — just better,” said Kim.

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“One of the reasons I joined (and why I stay) is because this company has always had a unique ability to marry incredible tech with incredible entertainment,” said Stone. “That’s our superpower. Obviously, everything starts with great shows and movies that people love. But if you think about all of the areas where Netflix has a big advantage — our reach, our recommendations, our fandom — tech enables all those things.”

Kim teased some of the innovations that are intended to enhance the Netflix user experience. Kim explained, “When we first started thinking about this project, we wanted to create an experience that was more flexible for our broad entertainment offerings, more intuitive and responsive to our members’ needs, and capable of elevating the most thrilling moments on Netflix.” 

Stone wrapped up the presentation by sharing: “What’s most exciting to me is how our new TV experience gives us the ability to evolve and innovate more easily going forward. That’s how we’re going to make the Netflix people know even better. And it’s how we’ll continue to connect them with even more shows, movies and games they’ll love.”

Users recently discovered a loophole in Netflix’s parental locks, allowing for kids to bypass parental locks and upgrade the Netflix plans of their parents, with no password or card information necessary. A Reddit post featured screenshots of a conversation with a Netflix help representative, with the user claiming they received an email from Netflix saying they had upgraded to the $25 per month, 4K streaming plan. That upgrade was made from one of their children, who uses a child’s profile on the Netflix account and is restricted by password-protected parental controls. When the child was given the prompt to upgrade, since too many screens were being used, they were able to simply click a button and change the plan.

The user told the Netflix helpdesk representative that it seems “unethical and wrong” for Netflix to have such an easy way to bypass the parental controls and let kids spend money. The response from Netflix was surprising.

“If they have access on the account like the automatically logged in on their device, they will see a prompt for the plan change if the online streaming limit is reached on the account,” the customer service representative wrote in one of their replies. In another, they simply told the user that the parental controls option “doesn’t cover the plan change prompt on the account.”

What do you think about the new changes coming to Netflix? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!