Rating a movie or TV show on Netflix isn’t as streamlined as it could be. As it stands, you need to leave what you’re watching and navigate to the episode or movie’s overview page, where you can give it a thumbs up, thumbs down, or double thumbs up, and then wait for it to load again to continue watching. This is a huge interruption, but if you wait to rate a show or movie until after it’s over, you’ll likely forget and never go back to the title just to give it a thumbs up. Luckily, Netflix has found a solution.
In an upcoming update, rating buttons will appear on the screen while users watch content (via The Verge). They are accessed the same way you’d get to the skip and pause buttons: just tap on the screen once while media is playing. With the new buttons that appear right at the top of the screen, viewers can quickly provide feedback on what they’re watching. The buttons are the same as they’ve been since last year: like is thumbs up, love is double thumbs up, and dislike is thumbs down.
This solves the issue of convenience, and having the like/dislike system in front of users should increase the number of ratings for TV shows and movies. This, in turn, will help teach the streaming service’s algorithms about each user’s viewing preferences and should improve Netflix’s recommendations in the long haul.
The new thumb buttons are already available on iOS as of August 7 and will come to Android at a later date. There was no word on whether users of smart TV apps or desktops will also get a similar change. From what we can see, the rating system on these platforms still works the same as it always had, where users have to back out of watching entirely just to rate a show or movie.