Netflix is about to look different on your TV. The company is starting to roll out a big UI redesign for its TV app “in the coming weeks and months” globally, according to a blog post.
“Our redesigned TV homepage is simpler, more intuitive, and better represents the breadth of entertainment on Netflix today,” Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim said in a press briefing. “And it’s better at the most important thing, which is helping our members easily find shows, movies, live events, and games that they’ll love.”
The Home tab now features a huge banner front and center suggesting something you might want to watch. Scroll down to access rows with different collections of things recommended for you, like “Your Next Watch,” “Today’s Top Picks For You,” or “Only on Netflix.” The icons for content can include tags like “Recently Added” or “Emmy Award Winner” to give you a little more information about why you might want to watch something. The new UI also moves shortcuts from the left sidebar to a section at the top of the screen.
The current TV UI was designed around finding TV shows and movies, but the new version is “designed to give us a more flexible canvas, now and in the future,” Kim said. Theoretically, the changes should make it easier for Netflix to highlight things like live content (which Netflix is investing more heavily in) and games streamed to your TV (which it’s currently testing). Netflix started testing the redesign last year.
Netflix is also getting new “responsive recommendations” that will be able to “pull in more signals, like what trailers you’re watching or who you’re searching for, so we can do a better job suggesting titles you’ll want to watch in that moment,” CTO Elizabeth Stone said on the call. For example, if you search for rom coms and Glenn Powell, Netflix will “subtly adapt your homepage to show you more titles that are related to both.”
