Netflix launching an innovative new TV experience featuring enhanced design, responsive recommendations and a new way to search.
Courtesy: Netflix
Netflix unveiled a redesigned homepage experience on Wednesday with the aim of making searching for shows and movies easier for its members.
The user experience revamp goes beyond the TV screen. Netflix is also making changes to include a vertical video feed that the company says better suits the mobile watching and sharing experience. In addition, executives announced the company is exploring ways to integrate generative artificial intelligence into the experience in partnership with OpenAI.
The new features, such as more visible shortcuts to finding content, will include real-time recommendations that respond to viewers’ “moods and interests in the moment,” Netflix said in a news release.
The updates will be made available globally to members in the coming months.
The overhaul of Netflix’s user experience, which is intended to allow members to discover more content in Netflix’s massive library of series and films, comes as competition among streamers remains stiff. Competing platforms like Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and Disney’s portfolio of streamers are looking to increase revenue and profitability by not only nabbing new customers, but retaining them.
Netflix has instituted a series of changes to its business — launching a cheaper, ad-supported option and a crackdown on password sharing — following a brief period of customer growth stagnation in 2022.
Since then Netflix member additions have been on the rise. Netflix reported 300 million paid memberships in January, up a record 19 million from the previous quarter.
While the streamer stopped reporting quarterly subscriber numbers beginning in the first fiscal quarter of 2025, revenue grew 13% during the period.
Netflix launching an innovative new TV experience featuring enhanced design, responsive recommendations and a new way to search.
Courtesy: Netflix
Netflix has made various updates to the consumer experience in recent years, but not a major overhaul such as this in quite some time.
The TikTok-style vertical video feed will allow users to save or share clips with friends.
“We know that swiping through a vertical feed on social media apps is an easy way to browse video content, and we also know that our members love to browse our clips and trailers to find their next obsession,” Netflix Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim said during a presentation for media this week.
The AI enhancements will allow members to use specific phrases when searching for what they want to watch, Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone said during the presentation. Those features will be powered by OpenAI, although the models will be trained by a team at Netflix in order to tailor to member needs, Netflix said Wednesday.
With the update, Netflix will put all the information members need to make an informed choice about what to watch “front and center,” Kim said during the call with reporters.
“Our members do a lot of eye gymnastics when they’re scrolling down and right and going back and forth between rows and title details on the homepage,” Kim said.
