It’s been in the works for quite some time, with trials rolling out in several territories last year, but now Netflix has confirmed that its long-awaited ‘Shuffle Play’ feature will definitely launch in 2021.
Netflix made the announcement in a Q4 2020 earnings interview, which can be watched in its entirety on YouTube.
During the call, Netflix’s COO and chief product officer Greg Peters discussed how “members can basically indicate to us that they just want to skip browsing entirely, click one button, and we’ll pick a title for them just to instantly play.”
While an exact launch date was not discussed during the interview, Variety reports that the shuffle feature will arrive during the first half of 2021.
What’s in a name?
Although the feature has tentatively been referred to as Shuffle Play in the testing phase, the streaming giant hasn’t settled on a final name yet – during the interview, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took a playful jab at Google’s ‘I’m feeling lucky’ feature, asking Peters “are you going to come up with something better?”
“We’re going to come up with something better than that, so stand by for this. You’ll see it when it rolls out,” replied Peters.