Netflix iOS App Will Soon Let You Remove Titles From Your 'Continue Watching' List

[MacRumors]

Netflix says users of its iOS app will soon be able to remove content from their "continue watching" list, which should come as good news to anyone who ever started watching something on the streaming service only to gave up on it in the opening minutes.

When you start watching a movie or TV show on Netflix for iPhone and iPad, it usually appears in the "continue watching" row near the top of the app's interface.

The idea behind the row is that it makes it easy to pick up where you left off. The problem is that Netflix's algorithm includes everything in its catalog that you've sampled, even if you decided you weren't interested in it pretty quickly.

Netflix's new "remove from row" feature, new to the Android version of the app, is designed to make it easier for people to remove those titles from their currently watching list, instead of having to wait for them to eventually get pushed down the line and out of sight.

The feature is accessed on Android via a three dot menu that appears below each title in the row. The pop-up menu also includes quick access to show information, as well as buttons to rate the content or download it.

Netflix says the ability for iOS users to remove shows from their 'continuing watching' row will roll out from June 29, although we'll have to wait and see if the feature is implemented similarly.

Article Link: Netflix iOS App Will Soon Let You Remove Titles From Your 'Continue Watching' List

 

[max2]

Oh thank god!

 

[verdi1987]

I've actually had this capability on iOS for some time now. Maybe I was targeted to test it.

 

[bookcase]

I want this feature to come to Netflix on the Apple TV.

 

[dz5b609]

I want this feature to come to Netflix on the Apple TV.

It all syncs, so you can remove it on your iPhone (or android phone) and it would also remove it on the Apple TV.

 

[itsmilo]

FINALLY. Most annoying thing ever. Just tried it on my android device and all the stuff I already seen is gone ??????

HBO Max, Hulu and Disney+ follow suit please

 

[JosephAW]

No longer have to scrub to the end to get rid of them.

 

[erinsarah]

Getting closer! This is great, but what I really want is for ALL the streaming apps to allow me to hide stuff I’m never, ever going to watch. I’m talking especially to you, HBO....

 

[brianbobcat]

Where is The Last Dance on Netflix? I don’t have it in the states. Is that screenshot from abroad or does Netflix have integration with an ESPN/Disney + subscription?

 

[supremedesigner]

Flippin' finally! It's driving me nuts when they didn't have that feature. I first noticed Amazon Prime have that feature and why not Netflix...

 

[ipponrg]

It all syncs, so you can remove it on your iPhone (or android phone) and it would also remove it on the Apple TV.

A lot of people just use one device for watching content. I would have thought Netflix would add that to the Apple TV app but then we still don’t have a way to turn off trailer autoplay

 

[MisterSavage]

No longer have to scrub to the end to get rid of them.

You can also delete them from your history if you log into Netflix via a browser but it can be a pain to do so.

This feature is much needed.

 

[PutTheFBackIn]

Between this and finally adding an option to turn off auto-previews, Netflix is killing it this year.

 

[amartinez1660]

Where is The Last Dance on Netflix? I don’t have it in the states. Is that screenshot from abroad or does Netflix have integration with an ESPN/Disney + subscription?

Over here Netflix Canada at least is there, everybody has been talking about it since a month ago when it appeared.
[automerge]1593005734[/automerge]

You can also delete them from your history if you log into Netflix via a browser but it can be a pain to do so.

This feature is much needed.

I don’t understand how this hasn’t been there and how they make a big deal out this...
the Netflix apps do thousands of other functions: create account, save to playlist, all the menu navigations, playback navigations, audio/subtitles language selection, download/delete-download for offline viewing, and a million other things... plus all the core tech behind video compression/streaming/data-storage/world-data-location which I started reading and was mind blown, way over my understanding capabilities.

Can’t remove from the continue watching list? Really? When it has been already made on other platforms and not to mention it’s already there since it syncs when done somewhere else?

I would like to know then, not joking, why it is a big deal, what were the issues found and how they solved it... even if it is “we forgot about it” or “we got entangled in meetings about the next meetings and every manager wanted to take ownership of that feature to win the pats on the back”, those are perfectly valid issues that bring quick features to a rabbit hole.

 

[Mambain]

It would be equally useful if they added a capability to select 'I've already watched this' for those titles that you watched at your friends or any other source that is not your Netflix account. This would both improve the quality of recommendations and stop showing on your home screen the titles that you have already watched.

 

[chris4565]

Great addition! Now the only major Netflix feature that’s missing in my opinion is the integration into the TV app.

 

[AHDuke99]

Thank god

 

[skogkatt]

FINALLY

 

[Analog Kid]

I used to be able to go into my account and delete items from my viewing history, which would sometime clear it from my continue watching-- but now you can only access your account by browser.

Not sure why this took so long to implement. I get that they want you to watch as much as possible, but were people really watching stuff they didn't want to just to clear it? Seems like "I'll never watch this again" is a valuable piece of customer profile data in itself...

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

It boggles my mind how these huge multi-million dollar services lack so many obviously useful features. I don't know if it's penny-pinching, complacency, nannying, or what.

 

[I7guy]

Nice update Netflix.

It boggles my mind how these huge multi-million dollar services lack so many obviously useful features. I don't know if it's penny-pinching, complacency, nannying, or what.

Maybe these multi-million dollar services don't think anything is obvious (for obvious reasons) and only update their software via user feedback.

 

[sjalfr]

It boggles my mind how these huge multi-million dollar services lack so many obviously useful features. I don't know if it's penny-pinching, complacency, nannying, or what.

I guess they figure if it is in your face enough you'll change your mind and continue watching.

 

[Konigi]

Bout time.

Now I'm looking forward to the option that makes me recover those lost hours watching shows that weren't that really good after all

 

[td2243]

Good, since most Netflix originals are unwatchable.

 

[4jasontv]

This is great and I hope it leads to three things:

1. Marking multiple episodes as watched without removing the series completely.
   • This is big when I started watching a show on one platform and then switched over to Netflix or when I watch a bunch of episodes at a friends house and then want to continue watching from where we left off.
2. Tagging people as 'watching with' who are or are not on your account so their Netflix is updated if they watch something with you.
   • I hate having to scrub through three episodes just because we watched a show on her account or at a friends house.
3. Smart account swapping.
   • If I am the only one in the room, or at the very least, the only one home than it should be able to tell from my phone being near the TV that I am the one watching the show.
   • If you use parental controls you could add deactivation via phone authentication.

You could do all three of these by basically saying what users (not just accounts) are in the room watching a TV stream and then updating their account. You could throw a splash screen up with a list of watched content since the last time you used your account on your device where you can confirm you watched those shows and movies. Heck, Netflix could get get more user feedback by giving the user the option to say: didn't watched, watched and liked, watched and didn't like.