Netflix’s Play Something Button Rolls Out for All Users Globally

Shuffle the Netflix catalogue — but only on TV.

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 29 April 2021 11:39 IST

Netflix’s Play Something Button Rolls Out for All Users Globally

Photo Credit: Netflix

Highlights

Play Something trialled by Netflix since July last year
It was also known as Shuffle Play in certain Netflix tests
Play Something draws on your existing viewing history

Netflix's shuffle play “Play Something” button on TV is now here for everyone. On Wednesday, Netflix announced — with the help of Will Arnett voicing a remote tired of its buttons being pushed — that it was rolling out Play Something to all its members globally, over nine months after it first began testing the shuffle play feature. It's quite simple: you hit the Play Something button and Netflix will pick a title from its catalogue — a film or a TV show — that draws on your existing tastes.

That means you might end up with a series or a movie you have never seen before, something you're already watching or that's on your list, or a show or film that you left unfinished midway through. And if you don't like what Netflix picks for you, you can hit a “Play Something Else” button as many times as you want until you land on something that does suit your interests — a little bit like flipping the channels on television.

In its announcement video, Netflix showed a couple having trouble deciding what to watch — that's a situation we have all been in at some point, but Play Something isn't perfect for those situations since it only works with one profile in mind. It won't take into account the tastes of multiple profiles before picking something for you at random. It's also restricted to TVs/ living room devices.

But Netflix wants you to really make use of the feature, so it's putting it in three places. Play Something will be available on the profile selection screen right under your name. You can also access it in the navigation menu (wherever available) on the left side of the screen. And lastly, Play Something will also take over the tenth row on your Netflix homepage.

What Play Something looks like after you hit the button
Photo Credit: Netflix

Play Something is also compatible with Text-to-Speech (TTS), Netflix says. If you use screen readers, head over to Netflix's Accessibility help centre to learn how to set up Play Something over TTS on your TV.

We dive into all things Apple — iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV 4K, and AirTag — this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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