Netflix is rethinking how people can discover and decide what to watch. The launch of its vertical video feed is part of a redesigned mobile app that leans into social-first viewing habits.
The rollout of the mobile experience is beginning in the US and select markets, before expanding globally over the coming months.
Netflix acknowledges that choosing what to watch can feel overwhelming, and the update aims to simplify that process. It introduces a scrollable stream of short clips from across the platform’s catalogue, allowing users to browse highlights from films, TV shows and live content in a format more commonly associated with apps such as TikTok and Instagram.
Rather than committing to a full episode or film upfront, viewers can swipe through snippets, using them as a starting point to decide what to watch next.
The move reflects the shift in how audiences engage with entertainment on their smartphones. While Netflix has long positioned mobile as a companion to its TV experience, the company says viewing habits have evolved, with users increasingly turning to their devices for shorter, more immediate moments of entertainment throughout the day.
The vertical feed, simply labelled “Clips”, is a discovery tool designed to meet that demand. The personalised selection of content is not just tailored to a user’s general preferences, but also to the specific types of moments they tend to engage with. For example, two viewers who enjoy the same series may be shown different clips depending on whether they gravitate towards action scenes or emotional moments.
This builds on Netflix’s existing recommendation system, but applies it in a more granular way. The company says the sheer volume of content available across platforms has made finding something to watch one of the biggest challenges for viewers. The new feed is designed to make this process more natural, using video itself as the primary medium to guide users to make a decision that is quicker and more intuitive.
"At its heart, this is about discovery, and making the process of choosing what to watch as entertaining as the viewing experience itself. As entertainment options continue to expand, choosing can be hard," a spokesperson for Netflix tells The National. "Clips is designed to make discovering what to watch feel natural and fun, using video as the best storyteller of video. A win for us is a member finding something they love and taking action, whether that means adding it to their list, tapping into a title, or pressing play."
The feature also includes built-in actions that allow users to move seamlessly from browsing to watching. Viewers can tap to add a title to their watchlist, share clips with friends or jump directly to the full details page of a show or film. The goal, Netflix says, is not to encourage endless scrolling, but to help users quickly find something they want to commit to.
The Clips feature is not entirely new territory, as the company previously experimented with short-form video through features such as Previews and Fast Laughs, which introduced 30-second vertical or near-vertical formats for browsing content. Those experiments helped inform the design of the feed, which expands the concept into a more central part of the app experience
Alongside the vertical design, the redesigned mobile app also introduces updated navigation, including a top bar organised by content type and a simplified bottom menu that makes it easier to search, browse saved titles and access the Clips feature directly.
Netflix says it plans to expand the feature with themed collections, allowing users to explore clips by genre, mood or specific content types such as reality TV or behind-the-scenes footage. The company is also considering integrating clips from podcasts and live events, further broadening the scope of what users can discover.
While the update aligns Netflix more closely with social media platforms in terms of format, the company is positioning it as an evolution of its service rather than a shift away from long-form storytelling. The company says the clips are designed to complement, not replace, traditional viewing, acting as an entry point that encourages users to engage more deeply with full-length content.
The launch signals how streaming platforms are adapting to changing audience behaviours, particularly among younger viewers who are accustomed to discovering content through short-form video. Netflix is not alone in experimenting with vertical formats, with platforms including Disney+, Paramount+ and Peacock testing similar features as the industry looks for new ways to simplify how users choose what to watch.
