WNBA app rolls out TikTok-style video feed to attract younger fans

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is the latest organization to bet on short-form videos to draw in more users. The league announced Tuesday its revamped mobile app, which includes a new home page with a TikTok-like vertical feed that features free content as well as other app updates like a new feature that hides game scores.

Previously, the home page only featured content designated for WNBA League Pass subscribers; thus, the videos were all locked behind a paywall. With the new update, everyone has instant access to free short-form videos as soon as they open the app. Fans can watch highlights, behind-the-scenes and off-the-court content along with “fit checks,” where WNBA players show off their outfits.

Notably, the app will also offer various exclusive content that won’t be posted on WNBA’s social media accounts, Devin Ward, director of WNBA digital products, told TechCrunch.

At the top of the home screen, there are new “stories” for users to click on and get a quick rundown of WNBA-related news. Like Snapchat and Instagram, these videos are 10 seconds long and go away after a certain amount of time.

Plus, the new home page features a news section for fans to read written articles about their favorite team.

WNBA’s counterpart, the NBA, added a “For You” vertical video feed to its app in September 2022. Many fans reacted positively to NBA’s in-app short videos and the feature was highly requested for the WNBA app, said the league.

Similarly, the WNBA also added “Hide Scores,” a feature that already exists in the NBA app, that allows users to swipe on a toggle to enable or disable game scores. Now fans can prevent their watch experience from being ruined if they want to avoid spoilers.

Also, a new widget launched for iPhones, so users can see game scores appear on their lock screen in real-time.

Although there are similarities between both apps, the WNBA team noted that there are noticeable differences as well. Plus, the WNBA app is a separate product built by the league’s internal team with help from its partner, Deloitte.

One major difference is the navigation tabs at the bottom of the screen. The updated WNBA app has a “Standings” tab, so users can see where each team ranks. The league found based on its learnings and consumer feedback that casual fans wanted the stats and standings to be easily accessible.

Meanwhile, the NBA app has its “Standings” section hidden in its “Discover” tab.

As the WNBA continues to gain more traction, the league is further investing in its digital platforms in hopes of enhancing the fan experience. During the 2022 season (regular and postseason), the WNBA reported an average of 416,000 viewers across all networks, making it the most-watched full season since 2006.

Overall, the WNBA app is a hub for fans to access replays, highlights, the latest schedule, scores, stats, standings and more. It has seen 260,909 downloads since 2020, according to the company. For the 2022 season, the league’s app had 101,000 monthly active users.

The app also offers WNBA League Pass, a subscription that costs $24.99 per year and gives viewers live and on-demand games.

Eventually, the WNBA plans to launch features for sports betting and fantasy leagues, Ward told us.

The 2023 WNBA regular season begins May 19.

WNBA app rolls out TikTok-style video feed to attract younger fans by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

Spotify revamps its app with TikTok-style discovery feeds, Smart Shuffle for playlists and more

At Spotify’s Stream On event today in L.A., the company introduced a significant redesign of its app, which capitalizes on its investments in personalization technology while also adopting a similar short-form video feed as the one popularized by TikTok. In the updated Spotify mobile app, users and subscribers will gain access to a handful of new features, including the vertically scrolling “discovery” feeds, a new “Smart Shuffle” mode for playlist recommendations, a new podcast autoplay feature, and more.

Some features, like Smart Shuffle, will only be available to subscribers, while others — like the new TikTok-inspired feeds — will roll out to everyone. However, the features’ availability will reach some markets before others and will arrive at different intervals.

Image credits: TechCrunch

Spotify says the changes are meant to make its user interface feel more alive and interactive. However, the move could serve other purposes, as well. Most notably, it introduces a new surface in the app where the company could later introduce ads, much as Instagram has done with the addition of Reels. Officially, Spotify doesn’t have anything to announce on this front today, but in an email with TechCrunch said it’s “excited” about how the offerings could evolve over time.

Another perk of a revamp is that it could be a way to address some customer complaints about how its app has become too cluttered and difficult to use, which limits discovery.

The new design builds on the updates shipped in August 2022, which had separated music and podcasts into their own feeds. It will be immediately noticeable upon the first launch of the updated app, as the main page — the app’s Home tab — will have been refreshed with the new features.

Thankfully, you won’t be dropped directly into the new TikTok-like experience without warning.

Instead, at top of the music feed’s screen, you’ll still find shortcuts to your personalized playlists and mixes. These are not new — Spotify has a long history of leveraging personalization technology to attract and retain users, starting with the launch of its flagship Discover Weekly playlist in 2015. In later years, it expanded its collection of personalized playlists to cater to users with a wide variety of music tastes and interests, in addition to playlists centered around activities, like commuting or working out, and more.

Image Credits: Spotify

After first highlighting these playlists and mixes, the app will display the recently launched AI DJ feature, currently available only to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The DJ uses generative AI and a natural-sounding AI voice to present its music selections and offer background information on the artist, song, or album, among other things. (You can read more about the DJ feature here).

Image Credits: Spotify

As you scroll down, you’ll have the option to start scrolling through the music previews. These are presented as full-screen videos that take advantage of the artist’s existing Canvas video — the short, looping video clips that already play when their music is streamed in the app today. The format is already successful, delivering increases in streams, shares, saves, and adds, Spotify claims.

Canvas also presented Spotify with an opportunity to experiment with a TikTok-like feed — something it’s been testing for some time. (TechCrunch has reported on various tests of a vertical feed in its app in 2021 and again in 2022. At the time, Spotify would dismiss these tests as just another of its ongoing experiments. More recently, a TikTok-like video feed had been spotted in testing in Spotify’s mobile app, distributed to its TestFlight testers — as seen here on YouTube.)

Image Credits: Spotify

The design Spotify has now settled on following its earlier tests presents a snippet of the track’s audio combined with video. The feature allows users to preview an album, playlist or a single, the company says. With playlists and albums, you can tap through the preview card in order to preview up to 5 different tracks. In some cases, users will also receive contextual indications as to why they’re being recommended these items.

What’s interesting about this format is that Spotify will allow you to listen to your music while scrolling the recommendation feed on mute. If and when you find something you like, you can tap on the card to go to the full album or playlist view, or you can stop your own music and start listening to the suggestion instead. You can also add recommendations to your Liked Songs or any other playlists for later listening.

Similar to the music feed, the podcasts feed has also been updated with a vertical scrolling user interface. Except in its case, users won’t be previewing a looping video — unless it’s from a video podcast, of course. Instead, they’re presented with audio snippets from podcast episodes up to 60 seconds long with real-time transcriptions of what’s being said.

Like the music feed, users can scroll through the podcast recommendations vertically with the audio muted, if they choose. If they see something they like, they can unmute and start listening, picking up where the preview left off by tapping “continue listening.” They can also tap the Plus (+) button — a button Spotify recently updated to combine its”Like” heart icon and “Add to” functionality into one. With a tap, users will now be able to add the episode to a playlist of saved episodes for later listening, Spotify says.

The company also notes that its audiobook feed will be structured in the same way as these new music and podcast feeds. Audiobooks are a newer offering and one that had, at last count, over 300,000 books available.

The discovery feeds won’t only be accessible through the music and podcast pages, Spotify says. They’ll also be integrated into the app’s Search tab. From here, users will able to jump into personalized feeds for things like genres and moods.

The company says the algorithm behind these feeds will rank its suggestions based on the individual user’s taste and preferences, not general popularity.

Outside of the new feeds, another change is also focused on discovery but is a more minor tweak.

The company in 2021 had launched a feature called “Enhance” that would make recommendations of songs that could be added to a playlist you had created. Now, Spotify’s Premium subscribers will be able to automate this type of discovery without having to manually review the suggestions. This will be done by toggling on a new “Smart Shuffle” option, that will add Spotify’s suggestions to the queue as your playlist streams. (A sparkle icon will indicate which tracks are being recommended). If you like a track, you can tap the plus button to add it to the playlist. And if you don’t, you can tap a minus button to remove it.

Image Credits: Spotify

In addition, podcast listeners will also gain a new feature that will automatically start playing a recommended episode when you finish streaming an episode from a different show. Spotify claims such a feature has been in high demand among users and will boost discovery of new shows. However, those who don’t enjoy an autoplay experience will be able to turn it off in Settings. (Settings –> Playback –> toggle Autoplay)

The new features, combined with the recently launched AI DJ, are focused on addressing one of the larger complaints from both fans and artists and creators alike: new content discovery. As the radio model has died, artists are now more dependent on services like Spotify to feature their tracks on editorial playlists or insert their songs onto users’ Discover Weekly. In theory, these updates could open a new window for finding fans.

But arguably, this update could be fairly controversial. There are those who are sick of the TikTok-ification of all their apps, from Netflix to Reddit to Amazon to more direct competitors from Snap, Instagram, and YouTube, among others.

Spotify, however, says recommendations are key to its experience.

“Spotify recommendations drive close to half of all users’ streams. What’s more, each time your music gets played on a program playlist like Release Radar, you receive on average, three times more streams from that listener over the next six months,” noted Gustav Söderström, Spotify Co-President and Chief Product & Technology Officer, speaking at the event.

At launch, Spotify’s redesign will be mobile-only but it will arrive on more devices in the future. It will roll out in waves to the company’s 500+ million monthly active users, which means you may not see it immediately, but should soon.

Spotify revamps its app with TikTok-style discovery feeds, Smart Shuffle for playlists and more by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

GIPHY comes to connected TVs with launch of a GIPHY Arts app for Roku

GIPHY Arts, the Giphy division dedicated to GIF art and artists, launched a free exclusive app on Roku today that allows users in select regions to view GIPHY Clips–30-second original short clips with audio—with their Roku devices.

The new “Public Axis” channel is Giphy’s first app for connected TVs and brings short-form video content made by artists from mobile to the TV screen. It arrives on the same day that YouTube introduced its own plan to bring short-form video to TV viewers to challenge TikTok.

At launch, “Public Axis” is available to Roku users in the U.S., the UK, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Ireland, France, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Australia, El Salvador, Peru, Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, and Brazil. It’s free to download in the Roku Channel Store and doesn’t have ads.

Users have access to various shorts, clips or “episodes” made by a commissioned artist. For instance, ListenMi released a three-episode series, “Remote Work Tales,” that feature relatable animated shorts about the work-from-home experience.

Viewers can also check out Public Axis content on publicaxis.giphy.com.

GIPHY Arts launched the Public Axis app on Roku devices to help promote artists to “an even broader audience,” the company wrote in its blog. Roku reported a net add of 2.3 million active accounts for the third quarter, bringing the total to 65.4 million.

Roku, meanwhile, has recently embraced the short-form video trend, as well. The streaming media platform rolled out a new short-form video feature, “The Buzz,” to give users access to short content like trailers, interviews and images from AMC+, Apple TV+, BET+, SHOWTIME, Starz, and other partners.

Giphy has been in the short-form video space a bit longer. It made its first step into this market in 2019 when it launched “GIPHY Video,” which has since been renamed “GIPHY Clips.” Today’s announcement comes eight months after TikTok integrated GIPHY Clips into the new TikTok Library, an in-app creation tool.

Also, the company revealed a new 30-second ad last week, which is currently playing in movie theaters across New York City and Los Angeles.

GIPHY comes to connected TVs with launch of a GIPHY Arts app for Roku by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

YouTube begins rolling out Shorts on TV globally starting today

YouTube is expanding the reach of its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, with today’s announcement that it will begin rolling out Shorts on TV to its global users. The company’s updated smart TV app will now allow users to view the popular vertical videos in an optimized experience that’s designed to feel more consistent with what users see on mobile, YouTube explains. This was a challenge given that YouTube Shorts, like TikTok, were largely meant to be watched on smaller smartphone screens.

The new Shorts-watching feature will require a smart TV from 2019 or later, a newer gaming console or a streaming device, YouTube says. The videos themselves can be found on new Shorts shelf on the homepage of the YouTube app or on a creator’s channel page.

In a blog post, the company detailed the different design experiments it researched in coming up with the final concept for Shorts on TV. It found Shorts videos didn’t look great in the YouTube app’s conventional video player, which had too much black space on either side of the vertical video. It also considered a “jukebox” style format which would line up three Shorts side-by-side to take full advantage of the TV’s screen without leaving any additional space on the sides. But this experience was not only cluttered, it also deviated from how Shorts are meant to be viewed — one-by-one.

The design YouTube landed on is a customized option that attempts to better fill in the sides of the video with a color-sampled blurred background and an outline around the video that resembles a smartphone’s screen. It then further iterated on this format to add more functionality off to the side of the video, including information about the creator, the sound used in the video, and thumbs-up and down buttons. This information can be displayed by clicking the right button on your remote.

In this initial rollout, viewers can subscribe to a creator’s channel in addition to liking or disliking the video after viewing. The company plans to introduce more community features over time, it says.

When watching Shorts, you can also use the remote to start or stop the video from playing by clicking directly on the short or by using the Play and Pause buttons on the remote control itself. The Short will continue to play until you advance to the next Short using your remote. You can use the up and down buttons on the remote to move to the next video or return to a prior Short, YouTube says.

The company noted it was unusual for consumers to prefer to use the remote control to move through the Shorts videos, as typically watching videos on TV is more of a lean-back experience. But in this case, it found that viewers wanted to manually control which Short played or which they skipped, as they would on mobile.

While today YouTube Shorts are watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, there hasn’t been a way to watch them on the big screen until now as the YouTube app hasn’t allowed users to cast Shorts to their TV and the main TV app didn’t support Shorts viewing.

The expansion of Shorts to TV will help YouTube to better challenge TikTok, which had also rolled out its own TV app to various platforms last year, including Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Android TV OS and select LG and Samsung Smart TVs in North America. TikTok had also offered a TV app for Google TV and Android TV in the U.K., France and Germany, and on Samsung TVs in the U.K.

But unlike TikTok’s TV app, YouTube’s TV app has the advantage of being pre-installed on many smart TV platforms. And its rollout is global. However, users won’t necessarily gain immediate access to the feature today as these sorts of rollouts take time. The company says all users should gain the ability to view Shorts in the “coming weeks.”

YouTube begins rolling out Shorts on TV globally starting today by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Google begins rolling out ads in YouTube Shorts globally

Google is starting to gradually roll out ads in YouTube Shorts around the world, the company announced at its Marketing Live event this week. The official launch comes as the company has been experimenting with ads in YouTube Shorts since last year. Starting this week, video action campaigns and app campaigns will automatically scale to YouTube Shorts.

The company says later this year, advertisers will be able to connect their product feed to their campaigns and make their video ads on YouTube Shorts more shoppable. Shoppable video ads are already available in YouTube Shorts’ rival TikTok, which allows users to view products in the short-form video app without having to switch to a browser.

Google Ads vice president and general manager Jerry Dischler said in a blog post that the ads roll out is an exciting milestone for advertisers and also a key step in the company’s road to developing a long-term YouTube Shorts monetization solution for creators. A spokesperson for YouTube told TechCrunch in an email that although the company has started running ads in the Shorts feed, there won’t be a direct revenue share from these ads at this time.

“​​Instead, we will continue to reward thousands of creators and artists monthly via the YouTube Shorts Fund while we develop a long-term model for creator monetization in Shorts,” the spokesperson said. “We are actively working on a monetization solution for Shorts creators and will be using the learnings from this launch to inform that.”

YouTube launched its $100 million creator fund for Shorts last year. As part of the program, YouTube invites thousands of eligible creators to claim a payment ranging anywhere from $100 to $10,000 based on viewership and engagement with their Shorts videos. To qualify, creators must produce original content — not videos that were re-uploaded from other channels or those with watermarks from other social services. Creators also need to be 13 or older in the U.S., or the age of majority in other countries and regions to qualify for the fund.

The company says thousands of creators have already been paid from the fund and that over 40% of creators who received payment from the fund last year weren’t previously monetizing their content on YouTube. It also says it has paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the three years prior to November 2020. YouTube says it’s “deeply committed to supporting the next generation of mobile creators with Shorts” and will have more to share in the coming months.

YouTube Shorts is generating 30 billion views per day, which is four times more than last year, the company says. Now that the platform isn’t totally brand new and racks up a significant amount of views, the new advertising initiative will help YouTube get its ad revenue up while also eventually competing with the monetization opportunities offered by other platforms, like TikTok.

In addition to the YouTube Shorts ads news, Google also announced that later this year, advertisers will be able to show new visual shopping ads to U.S. customers on Google Search. These will be clearly labeled as ads and will appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page. Google also said that merchants will be able to have 3D models of their products appear directly on Google Search.

Google will also launch a new ‘My Ad Center’ later this year to help users have more control of their privacy and online experience when using the company’s services. Users will be able to choose the types of ads they want to see more or less of across YouTube, Search and Discover.

TikTok rolls out new ‘Friends’ tab to more users, replacing the current ‘Discover’ tab

TikTok is rolling out a new “Friends” tab that replaces the “Discover” tab in the bottom menu of the app. The company says the new tab is going to roll out to more people over the coming weeks and that it will allow users on the platform to find content from people they’ve connected with. TikTok did not elaborate on the rollout or say whether it will be coming to all users in the future.

“As we continue to celebrate community and creativity, we’re bringing a Friends Tab to more people over the coming weeks, which will allow you to easily find and enjoy content from people you’re connected with, so you can choose even more ways to be entertained on TikTok,” the company said in a tweet.

A screenshot that TikTok posted alongside the tweet shows that users will see a banner that says “watch your friends’ videos” once they click on the Friends tab. If you have connected with your friends on the app, you’ll see their content on the page. If you haven’t, TikTok will suggest that you connect with friends through your contacts or that you connect with your Facebook friends. The page also suggests accounts from people that you may know and displays a follow button next to each name.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra first spotted the new tab last month, noting that it would replace the Discover tab. It’s an interesting move for TikTok to replace its Discover tab, which shows users a variety of content, including trending hashtags and videos. The Discover tab also includes a search bar that lets you search for specific content. It’s worth noting that there’s also a search icon on the top right side of the homepage that can be used to search for particular videos and also suggests specific searches based on your activity and previous searches.

TikTok’s decision to move away from a Discover tab is interesting and indicates that it’s looking to offer a new way to recommend content based on your actual friendships. It does seem like a peculiar move in some ways, especially since TikTok already has a “Following” tab that displays all of the content from people you follow on the app, which could include your friends.

The new tab is a way for TikTok to go beyond the Following tab and present itself as a more interpersonal app, as opposed to a place that simply highlights viral and popular videos. The company looks to be prioritizing this new personal content discovery over trending videos viewed through the Discover tab that may have appeared in your “For You” page rotation anyway.

TikTok has been making some changes to its app over the past few months and most recently introduced a way for users to see who viewed their profile. The feature is only available to users who are above the age of 16 and have fewer than 5,000 followers. If you have the feature, you’ll see an eye icon in the top-right corner when you look at your own profile. If you click on it, you’ll see who viewed your profile in the last 30 days.

TikTok introduces its first ad product to offer a revenue share with creators

TikTok is introducing a new way to lure advertisers to its platform by giving them the ability to showcase their brands’ content next to the best videos on TikTok. Ahead of its NewFronts presentation to advertisers scheduled for this afternoon, TikTok announced the launch of TikTok Pulse, a new contextual advertising solution that ensures brands’ ads are placed next to the top 4% of all videos on TikTok. Notably, the solution will also be the first ad product that involves a revenue share with creators,

The company said creators and publishers with at least 100,000 followers on TikTok will be eligible for the revenue share program during the initial stage of the TikTok Pulse program.

TikTok told TechCrunch the Pulse program will launch to U.S. advertisers in June 2022 with additional markets to follow in the fall.

TikTok didn’t say how many creators it would actually approve for the program in the early phases. But longer-term, the move could help TikTok to attract more creators to its social video app, following its earlier investments in creator monetization. Last December, TikTok debuted an online “Creator Next” portal where it organized all the tools creators can use to make money on its app in one place. Here, creators can learn about how to accept virtual gifts and payments from fans viewing their videos and their TikTok LIVE content. They can also apply to the Creator Marketplace to be connected with brands for sponsored content if they have at least 10,000 followers.

Now, TikTok will be able to add advertising revenue share to that list of creator monetization opportunities.

Image Credits: TikTok

The new program isn’t just about helping creators, however. It’s also about ensuring advertisers a more “brand-safe” environment for their content, similar to something like YouTube’s Partner Program (YPP).

On YouTube, the YouTube Partner Program allows creators to earn ad revenue from display, overlay, and video ads on their channel, in addition to providing access to other features like channel memberships, Super Chat, a merch shelf, and more. For advertisers, meanwhile, YPP allows them to reach videos from creators with more traction and subscribers, whose channels have also been vetted by YouTube for adhering to its content policies. This helps brands control their ads’ placement, so they don’t accidentally end up posted alongside hate speech or misinformation, for example.

TikTok says its new TikTok Pulse program will also be focused on making sure the creator content is “suitable” for advertisements.

“Our proprietary inventory filter ensures that TikTok Pulse ads are running adjacent to verified content with our highest level of brand suitability applied on the platform,” an announcement from TikTok states. “Additional post-campaign measurement tools such as third-party brand suitability and viewability verification provide advertisers the opportunity and transparency to analyze and understand the impact of their campaigns,” it noted.

The company says the program will additionally offer brands a way to target their ads to particular areas of TikTok. Through Pulse, brands can place their ads alongside videos across 12 categories of content, including things like beauty, fashion, cooking, gaming, and more.

At launch, only advertisers TikTok invited to join the program will have access to TikTok Pulse. But a TikTok spokesperson said the plan is to roll out the solution to more brands in the months that follow.

TikTok declined to share other specific details about the new program, like the revenue share percentage for creators, ad pricing, or information about how soon someone browsing their For You page would see Pulse ads appear, among other things.

Later this afternoon, TikTok is scheduled to pitch its platform to advertisers at the NewFronts, where TikTok’s GM for its North America Global Business Solutions, Sandie Hawkins, and its Global Head of Business Marketing, Sofia Hernandez, will talk about TikTok Pulse as well as explain to advertisers why TikTok should be a part of their media buy considerations.

 

Netflix brings its short-form video feed ‘Fast Laughs’ to the TV

Netflix is bringing its short-form video feature, “Fast Laughs,” to the TV’s big screen. Launched a year ago, the TikTok-inspired feed of funny videos had previously been available only on mobile devices, where it serves as a way to introduce Netflix users to new shows, movies, and comedy specials they may want to watch.

The smartphone version of “Fast Laughs” was given a prominent position in the Netflix app, where it’s currently the middle button in the bottom navigation bar — a placement that seems to indicate the streamer is worried about losing users’ time spent on mobile to rival video apps like TikTok, or now, Instagram and Facebook’s Reels.

Similar to TikTok, “Fast Laughs” on mobile had offered a swipeable, vertical video feed where buttons to react, share, or save the content are stacked on the right side of the screen. However, Netflix’s goal is not to develop a social platform; it’s to encourage users to add shows, movies and specials to their Netflix watch list or jump right in to start streaming a title after viewing the short video teaser.

On Netflix’s TV platform, “Fast Laughs” will work a little differently.

The opt-in feature will begin to appear on members’ homepages, somewhere around rows 6 through 12. In this case, the idea is to serve up the short videos at a time when users have been scrolling down looking for something to watch. And instead of navigating through the content vertically, as on the phone, the videos can be clicked through with your remote control via the arrow on the right side of the screen.

At the bottom of the screen, you can see the program’s name, rating and can choose to click a button for “More Info,” to be directed to the title’s landing page.

Image Credits: Netflix

As the feature can sometimes showcase more mature content, it will not appear on kids’ profiles. (Netflix had tested a kid-friendly short-form video feature on mobile, too. But that one is not yet expanding to the TV.) However, “Fast Laughs” will respect users’ maturity settings, if configured, Netflix notes.

At launch, the TV version of “Fast Laughs” will include clips from Netflix movies like “Army of the Dead,” “Fatherhood,” and “The Kissing Booth;” TV shows like “Big Mouth,” “Dead to Me,” and “Never Have I Ever;” plus stand-up comedy from Ali Wong, Jo-Koy, and Jerry Seinfeld, and more.

Netflix says “Fast Laughs” on the TV is still considered a test for the time being and will first start rolling out to English-speaking markets including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, among others. These rollouts began on Feb. 22 and will slowly continue in the days and weeks ahead.

“Fast Laughs” isn’t the first time the company has borrowed a concept from social media apps when designing new features. In 2018, Netflix adopted the “Stories” format when introducing its Previews feature. And Netflix is always experimenting with ideas that could help members better discover content from its catalog. Last year, for instance, it tried to introduce more serendipity into the Netflix experience with the launch of its “Play Something” shuffle mode feature, which would play a title the service thinks you may like based on your interests and prior viewing behavior.