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Netflix recommends shows and films by looking at what you watch, how you rate titles, what people with similar tastes enjoy, and information about the titles themselves. It makes a prediction about what you might like; it does not know for certain. Sharing one profile can also mix several people’s tastes together.
What affects Netflix recommendations?
| Signal | What it means in everyday use |
|---|---|
| Your viewing activity | The titles you watch help shape future suggestions |
| Your ratings | Thumbs feedback tells Netflix more about what you enjoyed or disliked |
| People with similar tastes | Patterns across other members can help suggest something new |
| Details about a title | Genre, cast, categories, release year, and other features help connect titles |
| Viewing context | Factors such as time of day, language, device, and viewing duration can also matter |
Netflix describes these inputs in its recommendations-system explanation. This is a description of recommendations, not a complete list of all data Netflix may collect for every business purpose.
Why your home screen differs from someone else’s
Personalization affects several parts of the home screen: which rows appear, which titles go in them, and the order of those titles. A shared subscription does not mean every profile must have the same recommendations.
A new profile has little viewing history. Netflix may offer a selection of titles to help get started. As you watch and give feedback, that activity gives it more to work with. Recent viewing can carry more weight than older choices, so your suggestions can change as your interests change.
There are limits. A recommendation cannot make a title available in your country, and a high match does not promise you will enjoy it. Catalog changes and licensing are separate from the system’s guess about your taste.
How to make your recommendations more useful
- Use a separate profile. Keep your viewing apart from a partner’s, children’s, or housemate’s choices.
- Rate what you watch. Use the current thumbs controls when you have an opinion. Old advice about giving a star rating no longer describes the usual interface.
- Check your viewing activity. Unexpected entries may explain a sudden change in suggestions.
- Hide an unwanted history entry when appropriate. This is useful if someone watched a title on your profile or it does not represent your taste.
- Search directly when you know what you want. You can browse a genre or a specific title without accepting the home screen’s first suggestions.
View or hide something in your Netflix history
In a web browser, open your Netflix account, choose Profiles, select the profile, and open Viewing activity. Netflix’s viewing-history instructions explain how to see and download the list.
To hide a title, use the hide icon next to it. For an episode, Netflix may also offer to hide the series. According to its hide-history guide, hidden titles stop being used for recommendations unless you watch them again, and are removed from Continue Watching. The change can take up to 24 hours across devices, and the option is not available through a Kids profile’s activity page.
Does removing Continue Watching reset the algorithm?
Do not assume every change to a home-screen row resets your viewing history. Use the account’s viewing-activity controls when you want to hide a history entry. There is also no simple promise that hiding one title will rebuild all recommendations immediately.
If a title will not play at all, first use our Netflix error-code guide. If you want scheduled channels instead of personalized recommendations, our Pluto TV guide explains common live-TV and on-demand playback issues.