Five lesser-known Netflix tricks for a better viewing experience
The streaming service Netflix has hidden features, including a full viewing history, genre codes, clearing the Continue Watching row, disabling autoplay previews and customizing subtitles. Tech outlet Engadget has rounded them up in an article.
Users of the streaming service Netflix have access to several lesser-known features that let them personalize how they watch. Christine Persaud, a writer for the technology site Engadget, rounded them up in an article. She notes that she is not referring to obvious options such as downloading titles for offline viewing, playing games or adjusting video quality.
Your full viewing history
Netflix account settings let users see everything they have watched, along with the date. In a web browser, open the profile menu, choose "Manage Profiles", then your profile and the "Viewing Activity" section. There is no search function, so the list has to be expanded with "Show More", but it can also be exported with "Download All". This can help check what a child is watching, and entries can also be hidden.
Genre codes
To find a narrower genre than the standard categories offer, enter the address netflix.com/browse/genre/ in a browser and add a genre code to the end. The Netflix-Codes website provides a list of such codes. The author tried code 8985 for martial arts films and code 7687 for film noir; results depend on the country where the user is located.
Tidying the Continue Watching row
A movie or series you have abandoned can be removed from this row. On a mobile device, tap the three dots and choose "Remove from row". On a TV, press and hold the select button on the remote and choose "Remove". In a web browser, click the "X".
Previews and subtitles
Under "Playback Settings" in the account menu, users can turn off autoplay of the next episode and autoplay previews. Under "Subtitle Appearance", font size, shadows and backgrounds can be changed, but the position cannot. To see dialogue only, without descriptions of sounds and actions, choose English rather than English [CC] in the Subtitles menu.
The article closes by saying the tips apply to premium subscribers as well as to the ad tier, which it says has 250 million monthly subscribers.
