Netflix isn’t afraid to change your experience with its app. The streaming giant revealed today that a major redesign is coming for the Netflix app across TV devices like the Apple TV 4K, Chromecast, and smart TVs. Select users will start seeing it in their Netflix app soon.
New Netflix homepage is dynamic and ditches sidebar menu
There are two primary changes coming to the redesigned Netflix app, and they revolve around the way you navigate the homepage.
Emma Roth, writing for The Verge:
Netflix is testing a big homepage redesign on its TV app. The new look replaces the static tiles containing the shows and movies you want to watch with boxes that extend as soon as your remote lands on them.
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That’s not the only thing Netflix is changing about its look. The refresh gets rid of the menu that pops out from the left side of Netflix’s homepage and replaces it with a more streamlined selection of options at the top of your screen: search, home, shows, movies, and My Netflix.
Netflix has hundreds of millions of users, so it’s unsurprising that it’s going to take its time rolling out these changes. For now, the homepage changes are only a test. The company will test the redesign with a select group of users, but it told The Verge that ultimately hopes to roll it out more broadly before long.
9to5Mac’s Take
Changing the way tiles behave when you land on them is pretty huge, as it’s a function that all users perform constantly when using the app.
I’m not sure how I feel about having different titles quickly expand as soon as I linger on them for just a second. I’m not a big fan of dynamic UI changes that happen by default on a pause (I’m looking at you, auto-playing trailers). But I’m curious to see if Netflix’s implementation can end up being more useful and less a nuisance.
Moving the primary menu in the Netflix app from being a sidebar to now being at the top of the screen is more of a positive for me. The design looks a lot like Apple’s own TV app, with a very similar set of menu options to Apple’s app too. I’m all for consistency across streaming apps, at least when it does the job well.
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