Netflix Removes ‘Surprise Me’ Button, Despite Content Discovery Becoming Increasingly Difficult
Netflix has removed one of its most recent new features. The company has discontinued its “Surprise Me” button, which might be a surprise to customers who used the fun little function to be taken to a new title instantly upon completion of a show or movie.
The company’s Help Center page does not offer any details regarding the disappearance of the Surprise Me option, simply stating, “The Surprise Me feature was discontinued in January 2023.”
An article from the Wall Street Journal's Katie Deighton offers more insight into the removal. Deighton reports that a Netflix spokesperson confirmed that the Surprise Me button has been sunset for good and that it was used so infrequently by Netflix users because more often than not, they came to the service with a specific show or movie in mind.
The Surprise Me button was first introduced as the “Play Something” tile in 2021. It was a way for Netflix to offer users new and unconsidered alternatives during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns forced people to stay inside and get to know their streaming services a little better. After less than two years, the feature is now gone.
That may seem a bit surprising to some, given recent data from Nielsen regarding content discovery. Nielsen reports that users now take over 11 minutes on average to decide what they’ll watch next on streaming, a number that has grown 52% since 2019. So if users are struggling to decide what they want to see, why is Netflix removing an option that makes content discovery easier?
The biggest reason is likely that users don’t simply want to watch a new movie or show decided by the equivalent of a random number generator. They want to see new content, but they also want that content to fall in line with what they’ve liked in the past. Netflix’s Surprise Me button accounted for past viewing habits in its algorithm, but apparently not strongly enough to convince users that it was a worthwhile alternative to scrolling through rows of content and deciding what to watch next.
Netflix would do well to consider an alternative to the Surprise Me option. Users who come to a service for one specific show are much more likely to cancel their subscription and cycle to a new service once that show is complete, according to data from Samba TV.
Losing more users to other services is the last thing Netflix needs right now. Although the company added more than 7 million global users last quarter, it could lose a big chunk when it follows through on plans to crack down on password sharing. Those measures will be highly unpopular, and the company is already expecting to see some churn associated with their implementation.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.