Netflix Finally Adds A New Feature That Will Change How You Find What To Watch

Netflix's new feature is going to make a lot of people happy.

By Michileen Martin | Published 3 years ago

Has the “Continue Watching” row on Netflix ever annoyed you? You know what we’re talking about? You bring up Netflix either on your browser or in an app and after getting to the main screen one of the first things you’re always met with is the Continue Watching row. It will show maybe the last 9 or so shows and/or movies you watched, and it includes the progress bar noting — in red — how far you made it before stopping. It can get annoying, right? Yes, it’s meant to be helpful and it usually is, but as the unwatched content piles up, it almost starts feeling downright stressful — as if instead of entertainment, the media you haven’t watched completely yet has become some kind of homework assignment. Well, now, if there’s something you don’t want in your Continue Watching row anymore, you don’t have to wait for Netflix to bump it off — you can manually remove it yourself.

Netflix posted an announcement about the new feature at the end of January, along with a helpful graphic showing you how to remove a title from the Continue Watching row. Go into the menu for the specific title and just below the option for Audio & Subtitles is the selection “Remove from Continue Watching.” Simple as that. Also, if you remove something you didn’t mean to and you want it back in Continue Watching, you just return to that title’s menu and select “Undo Remove.” You can see the streamer’s instructional graphic for the new feature below.

Did you start watching Squid Game and it got just a little too disturbing to go on? No problem. Did you try out Extraction, feel a little weird watching Chris Hemsworth intensely fighting literal children, and decide maybe you’d go for a lighthearted comedy instead? No worries — you can take it out of that Continue Watching row. Did you simply browse through the 1985 Western Silverado for a writing assignment so you could confirm some details and maybe get a few screenshots, and sure — it’s a good movie — but you’ve seen it before and there’s nothing left there to surprise you, so maybe Netflix could give you a break and stop acting like you need to watch the whole thing as if you proposed to it? Then you might be making a mountain out of a molehill, but still, you can remove it now.

It’s definitely a good time for Netflix to be giving its subscribers more options, as things have gotten just a little shaky for the streamer. Netflix stock took a massive hit in January after failing to hit its projected subscriber numbers, closing at its lowest level since April 2020. Some analysts theorize that while the streaming platform is extremely profitable, it’s hit the ceiling as far as its growth is concerned. Of course, with the introductions of Disney+ and HBO Max, Netflix is facing a more crowded marketplace than it was for most of 2020. Not to mention that just a couple of days before the stock dive, Netflix announced another price hike to its monthly subscription — its third such increase since 2019.