Popular movie streaming app, Netflix is introducing a new mobile feature called ‘Fast Laughs’. The feature gives users the opportunity to get their fill of laughs from a TikTok-like feed of funny videos.
According to the company, the feed will include different short clips from its comedy catalogue including shows like “Murder Mystery,” series like “Big Mouth,” sitcoms like “The Crew,” and snippets from stand-up comedians like Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld and Ali Wong.
“We’re always looking for new ways to entertain and make discovery easier for members. Fast Laughs is a new full-screen feed of funny clips from a wide variety of Netflix titles, ranging from films and series to our deep bench of stand-up specials.”
Patrick Flemming, director of product innovation at Netflix
With Fast Laughs, you can watch, react, or share the short clips of a movie without watching the whole movie. If you like one of the shows or films on the feed you can add the title to your saved list to watch later. You can also push the “Play” button to start watching the entire show immediately.
Asides from comedies, Netflix has revealed that the feature will tap into its full catalogue, not just its own original programs. However, the company didn’t say how many total shows or movies would be featured.
It also added that there’s no exact clip length for these video snippets although clips lasted between 15 to 45 seconds during the test phase.
The “Fast Laughs” tab won’t appear on Netflix kids’ profiles as the clips’ content may not be appropriate for children. Users will also be able to filter the content based on their own settings for maturity rating levels.
To access Fast Laughs, you can use the bottom navigation menu next to “Coming Soon” to click on the Fast Laughs tab.
Netflix tapping into Social Media market
Netflix initially began experimenting with the feature late last year but didn’t announce it until recently.
The new feature looks and feels like TikTok or Instagram Reels. This points to the fact that Netflix has seen that users are drawn to short-form vertical video feeds and have created a product to leverage on it.
Fast Laughs borrows heavily from the TikTok format as its feed features full-screen videos that you can swipe through vertically. There are also engagement buttons on the right side of the screen that lets you react to the clip with different types of emojis. You can also share clips on other social media apps like WhatsApp, Instagram or Twitter.
This is not the first time Netflix has borrowed concepts from social media. A few years ago, Netflix introduced its own short-form video “Stories” feature called Previews.
Growing Users and engagement
The evident features in Fast Laughs show that Netflix is trying to attract some major benefits like increase daily usage and engagement that social media platforms enjoy.
TikTok has over 689 million monthly users globally. Wallaroo even estimates that its monthly users to have increased over 1.1 billion globally. Netflix on the other hand just crossed the 200 Million Subscribers mark and is eyeing higher numbers with the introduction of new features.
Similarly, in terms of engagement people are spending more time on TikTok and therefore less time on Netflix. Giving users a taste of what they can experience on TikTok can turn that into more time spent on the app. It could also convince people to re-watch a particular movie or TV show.
Creating Visibility for its Content
Netflix has invested heavily in content like stand-up comedy and struck multipicture deals with comedians like Adam Sandler and Kevin Hart. In the last 10 years, the company has borrowed over $16 billion to invest in its huge content library.
Earlier this year, the company revealed that it had more than 500 titles in post-production or preparing to launch. With so much content, a lot of it can get lost on the platform.
Fast Laughs is one way to give users a tiny glimpse of things they may have missed.
Summary
Reports suggest that the early testing of the “Fast Laughs” feature was successful in terms of engaging users and connecting them to Netflix content.
This means asides from the company’s focus on getting you to watch more content, the new feature can, in fact, help it compete with TikTok in terms of time spent on mobile devices, as it addresses the growing demand for shorter videos.
The feature is rolling out now to iOS and will begin testing on Android in the months to come.
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