Netflix Just Removed One of the Last Features to Make its UI Even Slightly Usable

"Netflix-or any of the other major streaming services for that matter-is not in the business of helping its user watch what they want. Netflix is in the business of channeling user eyes toward whatever content they want you to be viewing. This was the case since long before the loss of the treasured Netflix DVD library in 2023, a compendium of physical media the likes of which will never be assembled again-I would know, having been a user right up to the bitter end."

"The gradual enshittification of how the Netflix user is able to access the streaming side of the service, meanwhile, has progressed at a pace that is slow enough to obscure how much worse it has also become over the years ... until something happens like this past week's changes that brings it all into perspective. Most of the streamer's casual users will never even notice when these types of changes are made, but for the true power users, it's a devastating and utterly pointless robbery of functionality."

"Because as of this week, you can't even sort movies in any way via the Netflix app or web-based user interface. All the options to do so have finally been removed. You'll have to humor me on this, as I am considerably more sensitive to this type of UI meddling than almost anyone else would be. Consider it the aftereffect of spending years upon years carefully keeping lists of genre movies on streaming services up to date, as I watched pretty much every one of those streaming services continuously make it more difficult for paying customers to determine what films were actually in their libraries."

"It was more than eight years ago at this point that I wrote a piece on the absolute clusterfuck that the Amazon Prime UI had devolved into, when it came to the ability to browse its then-massive library of content, a problem that only continued to grow worse with time. Year"

Netflix and other streaming services focus on channeling user attention toward selected content rather than helping users watch what they want. Over time, access to streaming features has become less flexible, with gradual “enshittification” that can be hard for casual users to notice. Power users experience these changes as a loss of functionality, especially when the service reduces the range of options available. A specific change removes the ability to sort movies through the Netflix app or the web-based user interface. The result is a demonstrably worse experience with no clear benefit, continuing a pattern of making it harder for paying customers to browse and determine what films are available in libraries.

Read at Jezebel