Unlock hundreds of new movies with secret Netflix menus
Subscribers can tap into niche categories such as 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon'.
Featured Image Credit: Nanci Santos / NurPhoto/Contributor / Getty
When it comes to Netflix, what you see definitely isn’t all you get because there are a myriad of ‘secret menus’ just waiting to be unlocked.
Have you ever logged onto the Netflix main menu on your iPhone or TV and realised everything being presented is eerily attuned to your interests?
Well, turns out this isn’t fate because the streaming giant employs a particular algorithm to suggest films and TV shows based on your past viewing habits.
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While the algorithm has the chance to throw up some gems, there is a flaw - it’s not omniscient.
The main menu can only give you personalized recommendations based on TV shows and movies you’ve previously interacted with on the service.
This means if you have a penchant for hijacking movies or political thrillers and haven’t watched one on Netflix before, then the platform probably isn’t going to suggest any to you.
Thankfully though the company has included a way for you to get around this by implementing a ‘secret menu’ hack.
Over the years, Netflix has compiled thousands of unique categories that require a code to unlock.
So if you’re into science-fiction anime or witchcraft and the dark arts then all you have to do is put in the numerical identifier and you’re away.
According to Mary Bertone of Netflix’s evidence team, these codes date back to the days when Netflix was still in its DVD-only phase.
Netflix Tudum writes that the company originally had a public-facing genre tree linking out to all the various types of films and TV series, each of which has its own specific ID code.
However, a fan later scraped the genre tree for all the codes, shared the list online and the rest is history.
These niche genre collections are being updated all the time, with some of the latest being ‘Lady Whistledown’s Whisper-Worthy Tales’, ‘U herd of Baby Reindeer? OK more like it’, and the hilarious ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’.
Surprisingly, the streaming service has made it really easy to access this treasure trove.
If you’re watching Netflix on your PC, then all you have to do is find the numerical code for the entertainment category you want to watch and then append it to the end of a Netflix URL.
For example, you type ‘netflix.com/browse/genre/’ into your internet browser and add the code at the end.
If you’re watching on your TV, then you just have to type the category code into the search bar to unlock the secret menu.
It’s important to add that this hack unfortunately doesn’t work on tablets, smartphones or other mobile devices.