Whether it’s with television or on a streaming service, this age-old dilemma persists: There’s a ton of stuff on but nothing to watch. Netflix has a feature that will shuffle content for you named “Surprise Me”. However, that feature has gotten the boot.
It seems weird that Netflix would have a shuffle feature. If you opened the app but didn’t know what you wanted to watch, you could press the Surprise Me button to get a randomly-selected piece of media. You might have gotten a show or a movie.
That sounds scary, but you’d only get content based on your watch history. If you’re big into Disney movies, you wouldn’t get a random hack n’ slash film.
Netflix got rid of its shuffle feature
If you liked using this feature, then there’s bad news. According to The Wall Street Journal (via Android Police), the company discontinued the feature back in January. It’s new now because most people didn’t even know that the feature was nixed. The company admitted that it canceled the feature because people just weren’t using it.
A Netflix spokesperson said that when people log onto the platform, they have a solid idea of what they want to watch. There’s not much point in this feature if people aren’t on the search for content.
As you can imagine, the Surprise Me feature was a way of keeping people on the app. If you open the app and you can’t find what you’re looking for, you’re going to leave the app. That’s a bigger issue now than ever when there are about 1,000 other streaming services you can go to for content.
But, now that the feature is gone, Netflix is going to move forward. It’s still working putting a halt on password-sharing. The company has been getting a ton of flack for its aggressive password sharing. Only one person is allowed to have an account. If that person wants to share their password, they’ll need to pay more each month.
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