Netflix goes social, launches Facebook partnership

Online video content platform Netflix has introduced a social element to its site. The company announced today that users can now see what their friends are watching on Netflix thanks to a partnership with social network juggernaut Facebook.

In the announcement blog post the platform said that we constantly “get suggestions from our friends for new things to watch and we connect with our friends through the shared enjoyment of a great movie or TV show.” So why not do it on Netflix? Now users can connect with Facebook and share their favourite shows and movies on Netflix with friends as long as they agree to share.

“By default, sharing will only happen on Netflix. You’ll see what titles your friends have watched in a new ‘Watched by your friends’ row and what they have rated four or five stars in a new ‘Friends’ Favourites’ row. Your friends will also be able to see what you watch and rate highly,” the platform explains.

According to the company users are in complete control of what gets shared and they are able to choose not to share specific titles by clicking the “don’t share this” button in the player. Users are also given the option to visit their “social settings” in “your account” on Netflix.com to turn on additional sharing to Facebook or stop sharing altogether.

“We will be adding the ability to turn on these features for our US members over the coming days, so keep an eye out for them. All US Netflix members will have access to the social features by the end of this week,” says the site.

“Sharing movies and TV with friends online is still a new experience and we will continue to experiment and improve our social features over the coming months and years.”

Unfortunately this new feature is only available to Netflix’s 27-million United States users and will be rolling out at the end of this week.