After July 30th, Netflix users will no longer be able to write reviews for shows on the website. After August, you won’t be able to read any pre-existing reviews, either. Netflix broke this news recently and stated that the reason behind it was lack of interest in the feature. According to the streaming company, users have used the user reviews function less and less as time has gone on. As such, they don’t see a reason to support the feature any longer.
User Reviews Going the Way of the 5-Star Review
Those who used Netflix before last summer may remember the old review system being on a 5-star scale. Last year, however, Netflix replaced that system with a simpler thumbs-up, thumbs-down system. The Pandora Radio-like thumbs system resulted in a 200 percent increase in positive reviews, according to Netflix. The streaming company reported that the thumbs system led to better profile matching and show suggestions for users. As such, there’s good precedence for Netflix trimming functionality that is no longer useful from the service.
Lack of Support
The user review function wasn’t the most well-supported function on the service, for what it’s worth. The reviews could only be accessed or written through the desktop version of the site. Apps on phone, Roku and Smart TV platformers didn’t have access to the feature. As such, the declining usage can likely be ascribed to people not being aware of it. In truth, if Netflix was interested in users writing reviews on their shows, they would have made the function easier to access.
That said, Netflix was never considered a review platform. It seems unlikely anyone will be too disappointed by this news. It makes sense, following Netflix’s pattern of trimming features that don’t serve the core experience of watching TV and movies. The company has offered no suggestions as to whether any new features will replace the written reviews, though it seems unlikely.
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