Whether you’re new to the freshly-launched ad-supported Netflix tier or simply looking to maximize your premium subscription experience, there’s a lot you can do to smarten up your streaming experience. Find things faster, keep your binge-watching under control, and get the most from your subscription with these easy tips.
Finding What You Want
While Netflix’s vast and varied content library is one of its primary drawcards, choosing what to watch can become a chore in itself. While their new ‘surprise me’ function can be a great way to find hidden secrets, there are several third-party sites that make it easier- try JustWatch or Flexible.
And if part of your problem is not being able to find the genres you like, help is at hand. Netflix is set to show common genres by default, but they have a staggering number of other options. If you use Chrome, there’s an extension to help you find these alternate genre codes, or you can simply look them up manually, too.
Delete Your Mistakes
Sick of your feed being clogged with recommendations on stuff you didn’t enjoy? Keen to forget that embarrassing binge? Deleting your Netflix history can free you of that burden and make your life simpler and your recommendations more relevant. Simply head to the profile section of your account, and click the ‘viewing activity’ link. Remove anything you’d like to hide from your history, and enjoy a fresh new feed you can work with instead.
Ax the AutoPlays
If you need to control your binge-watching habits, disabling episode autoplays might be the smartest move you make. Even if you’re good with self-control, however, the ‘preview on hover’ settings can be annoying indeed. Thankfully, you can remove them all from your life for good. Head to ‘playback settings’ in the account screen, and choose the autoplay options you’d like to disable. The great news is that you can do this separately on each profile, so it’s easy to customize your experience without impacting other family members.
Download on the Go
This is a native Netflix feature that’s surprisingly underutilized. There’s no sense in wasting your data streaming from Netflix live when you can pre-download what you want to watch for a smoother, buffering-free experience no matter where you are. You can pre-download content on any device which uses the Netflix app- so Apple Mac users may have to skip this one, but everyone else can go to town as they choose. Just tap the download button next to a listing, and it will download beforehand on a strong connection.
You can also set the app up to only download over wifi. This is a great one for parents worried their data budget will be blown by a few childish antics before you even reach your destination. Simply head to app settings and make sure ‘wifi only’ is toggled on. Smart downloads, another feature you can access here, let you delete a previous episode after it’s watched, while automatically queuing the download for the next episode too. Nifty, right? Do remember that device downloads are limited- you can do it on one device only with Basic, two with Standard, and four with Premium. So if you need to use a different device, remember to unlink existing ones before you do.
Streamlining your Netflix experience to work better for you may be one of the best things you ever do. With just a few easy tweaks, tips, and tricks, you can shape a streaming experience that works better for you, and delivers the most possible bang for your buck, so why not try out these easy Netflix ‘hacks’ today- you won’t be sorry you did!
