Netflix is upping the stakes on watching with “Moments,” a new mobile feature that will let viewers easily save, rewatch, and share their favorite scenes from movies and shows. Available today for iOS users and coming soon to Android, this feature will give a fresh new layer of interactivity to the Netflix app-upgrading both personal viewing and social interaction. Here’s a closer look at what “Moments” offer and how it’s going to change the way we’d engage with our favorite Netflix content.
The “Moments” feature is based on the very principle of being user-friendly. All that a viewer has to do while watching is tap the “Moments” button on any memorable scene, and it gets saved directly into their tab “My Netflix“.
Automatically, it becomes a tab with curated moments for one to easily rewatch at any desired time. Users will be allowed not only to relive these highlights but also to share them across most-used platforms: Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and even email. With the addition of such sharing possibilities by Netflix, it tries to make its platform more comprehensively integrated into the social lives of users in order to encourage users to connect over shared moments.
By letting viewers save and share memorable moments, “Moments” is designed to make engagement with Netflix content more dynamic. The new feature lets viewers build a shared experience by recommending friends on specific scenes, sparking discussions, and creating a community feeling. You can rerun those iconic scenes, catch up on highlights of a show before a new season drops, or even just simply relive particularly powerful scenes without having to rewind or hunt for particular timestamps. Netflix is backing the feature with a significant marketing campaign entitled “It’s So Good.”
Celebrities to show their own favorite moments include actor Giancarlo Esposito, gymnast Simone Biles, and rapper Cardi B. Their testimonials encourage users to try out the new tool, while Netflix hopes to attract a wider audience in showing how popular personalities interact with their favorite scenes. By branding “Moments” with celebrities who have a much-identified and touted base of adoring fans, Netflix deploys star power to encourage engagement with its content.
“Moments” has been designed to integrate seamlessly with iOS; soon, Netflix will release an Android version. Even though many users enjoy the practicality of the feature that allows them to reach key scenes without interruption, reactions have been mixed.
Other viewers find it invasive because some provide pop-up prompts to remind the viewer to bookmark scenes, which may affect the viewership experience and the fluidity of a viewer into the storyline. Netflix is aware of such comments and says it intends to use feedback to refine the feature further, so that at some point, they may allow options for viewers who might like uninterrupted streaming to be able to disable the prompts.
This feature proves especially handy for viewers who want to go back and watch certain scenes immediately, be it rewiring a key plot point or doing some prep work for the new season. “Moments” takes out that stress of rewinding and fast-forwarding to give viewers an easy, seamless way to jump right into the key scenes, making it so easy for people to just re-familiarize themselves with key story points or simply to enjoy favorite sequences again.
For Netflix, “Moments” is a first foray into further personalized viewing and already contemplates ways to enhance it with user feedback. Teases the streamer, other features could go even further in amping up interactivity, but for now, they remain Top Secret. For now, it is all about having “Moments” fun and popular among users, though the changes might be made in favor of viewer preferences-like turning off the pop-ups for continuous viewing.
