People Are Calling This Netflix's Most ANNOYING Feature And You Probably Hate It Too

17 January 2018, 11:52

By Woodrow Whyte

We love Netflix but honestly this needs to STOP.

You know how everyone has those minor, everyday annoyances that never get mentioned because you think they're too inconsequential to bring up in conversation. But then someone does bring it up, and you realise that everyone feels EXACTLY the same way as you do?

Well that's exactly what happened on the Netflix reddit page (r/netflix) this week when one user named Icyrow mentioned something that had been bugging them about Netflix's user experience.

"Why doesn't Netflix have a decent way to browse content?" they asked. "I feel like I'm fairly stuck with the 50-100 titles shown to me on the home screen, why can't I browse their thousands of titles that they do have outside of a search bar? Why do I have to know the shows name to find it?"

It's literally like they've has been reading our thoughts. Netflix's interface is unbelievably terrible for browsing. You can spend what feels like hours browsing the same titles over and over again and it seems impossible to find anything new beyond what is immediately served to you on the home page.

The search function is equally terrible. For the most part, you have to know the name of a film (which must be available on the platform) to find it. It means that films you might like to watch get lost in a sea of crappy documentaries, stand up comedies and Adam Sandler crap. It's wild.

What started as a mini rant on Reddit ended up creating a tidal wave of moaning and bitching on the Netflix reddit page with over 2.2k comments. Here's just a few of the top complaints.

"As long as we’re bitching, why can’t I stop the Netflix app from blaring trailers at me when I’m just trying to quietly browse and read synopses? I am so sick of having to use my “mute” button every time I go into Netflix."

"Also, why can’t I permanently hide the shit I have zero interest in?

"I hate that I have no options to delete shows that I watched 10 seconds and found out it was a total Turkey. STOP SHOWING ME SHIT I JUST WATCHED FOR LOKE 5 SECONDS. GIVE ME A DELETE BUTTON."

"Can someone tell me how to shut off the autoplay? I've been to the netflix website and the only autoplay I can turn off is the next episode, not the crap on the opening page."

"I'd like to see the end credits again."

One user wrote, "Type a single letter into the search function and be amazed at the titles you never knew were on Netflix", to which another user replied, "And be infuriated by the content they don't have, but still shows up in the search anyway".

"Why is it recommending me shows I've downvoted?? My "Continue Watching" list is full of that crap. I can't continue watching anything I really want to continue because I have to scroll through the list. It's faster to type the name of the show in the Search bar than to browse."

"Also just shitty movies. As if quality is less important than content. Because of your interest in Gladiator, You might be interested in Ben-Hur (2016) Well no. I liked Gladiator because it was an amazing Oscar winning film. I'm not just instantly entertained whenever I see Swords and Sandals on the tv."

"95% of what I see available to watch are TV shows and stand-up. There are some really good movies on the site but I would never know if I didn’t search."

Damn. Ya'll mad. But we might have a solution for you, especially for browsing.

There is probably a good reason why Netflix have set up their browsing/search functions this way (let's be real, it's so you'll watch their original content instead). However, several users have recommended a nifty database site called Cinesift.com. You can search for films based on what's available on Netflix and Amazon Prime, filter by year and genre and the amount of reviews it has received. Then it will give you a list of matching films with ratings from sites such as Rotten Tomato and IMDb. While it's not perfect (it lacks an LGBTQ genre search, for example), it is 100% better than what you will be used to on Netflix. The more you know...

So what's the thing that pisses you off about Netflix the most?