Netflix silently dropped a new user interface (UI) and furious users are threatening to unsubscribe.
Don't fix what's not broken, as the saying goes.
The streaming giant made a major change to its homepage layout but it didn't come without backlash.
Social media was filled with users complaining that the new design was 'clunky, restrictive and all round unappealing'.
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"Did Netflix just sneakily changed the entire UI?" one confused user asked on X.
Those scrolling through content on their TV noticed several flaws with the design. One of which is the excessive screen space it takes up.
Another user posted: "Netflix your new app update sucks. This new UI looks absolutely atrocious. Can only see maybe 30% of what we could see before. May consider unsubscribing just because of this lol,' one user complained."
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Someone else vented: "Nobody asked me but the new Netflix menu sucks. I hate it. Can’t see anything but one show at a time".
Others pointed out that some titles are now cut off, making an unfriendly browsing experience.
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One screenshot by another subscriber shows the series The Lincoln Lawyer, where the word lawyer was only partially visible due to the oversized thumbnail. "Netflix you need to fire your product owner and design team. This new design is cutting off some titles. Feel free to hire me!" they captioned with their photo.
Another bluntly summed it up as: "Slow. Annoying. Dumb. Awful." Now, many users are pleading with Netflix to undo the changes.
"Netflix rollback the UI on the TVs, please, for the love of god. Make it more appealing, we don’t need the shows to take that much screen space," one person argued.
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Turns out, Netflix had actually been testing this redesign with a select group of subscribers since June 2024. The company described it as its 'biggest update in a decade.'
Senior director of product Patrick Flemming explained that the goal was to simplify navigation and reduce how much effort users need to scan through content.
In his words, Netflix wanted to minimise the 'gymnastics they [users] do with their eyes.'
At the time of testing, the company wrote: "This new interface provides more visible title information at a glance – including synopsis, genre, and ratings. Title previews are also larger and more dynamic, with more immersive trailers and bigger box art to make browsing easier."
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But the simpler approach isn’t having the intended effect on the streaming community and instead, has made people's experience worse.