Netflix Tests ‘Random Episode’ Play Button On TV Shows

By Violet Johnson |   21 April 2019   |   1:30 pm  

You may or may not have noticed but Netflix is testing a button to play random episodes of select TV shows.

“We are testing the ability for members to play a random episode from different TV series on the Android mobile app,” a Netflix spokesperson told Variety. “These tests typically vary in length of time and by region, and may not become permanent.”

Some of the shows the button is being tested on include “The Office,” “Our Planet,” “Arrested Development,” and “New Girl,” according to Android Police, which first reported on the test this week.

Users that are part of the test get to see a button to play a random episode within the Netflix video player, and the app is apparently also offering users the ability to “play a popular episode” right from the main menu.

Netflix homepage showing new feature | Android Police

Netflix vice president of product Todd Yellin suggested that the company was going to test different approaches towards playing individual episodes of some shows during a recent press event in Los Angeles. “How about anthologies? How about something like ‘Chef’s Table’?” Yellin told journalists at the event last month. “You don’t have to watch it in the order that we tell you to.”

The streaming giants regularly test new features with a subset of its audience and then compares the results to metrics from members without access to the new feature. The company runs numerous such tests at any given time, and only ever implements a small sub-section of features tested this way.

 

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