Netflix is launching a much more private way to share your favorite movies and TV shows with friends that may make people more inclined to link their streaming accounts to Facebook.
Connecting Netflix and Facebook formerly shared all streaming choices with a user's friends, but Netflix's new system will let subscribers select which friends should get their video recommendations, the Associated Press reported.
The company believes the old method, which automatically disclosed Netflix selections to all friends, kept users from wanting to connect their accounts.
"There are a lot of people on Facebook that you don't really know that well," noted Cameron Johnson, Netflix's director of product development, as quoted by the AP.
With the new system, fellow Netflix subscribers who have linked their Facebook accounts can see each other's recommendations on their respective Netflix pages, while recipients who aren't Netflix subscribers with linked accounts will receive streaming suggestions as a Facebook message. Recommendations won't be published on subscribers' Facebook pages or in the News Feed.
Netflix is hoping that the new system will entice more subscribers to link their accounts and strength its user base of 50 million people worldwide.
"For us, it's about trying to find a new social model that works for on demand television," Johnson told Mashable in a phone interview. "Most people already tell their friends about TV shows or movies they like; we're trying to make that experience seamless and quick within Netflix."
After getting a recommendation, friends can reply with a message, ignore the missive or automatically inform the sender when they watch the recommended video.
"We're trying to emulate the way people talk in their real lives," Johnson told Mashable. "With linear TV, everyone watches big events at the same time. With on demand, people watch at their pace on their own screens. This is a more modern water cooler."
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