Netflix Launching Selective Facebook Recommendations

Users can now share their film faves with friends and not grandma

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Need a way to let your bestie know how much you loved the last season of “Pretty Little Liars,” but don’t want your guilty pleasures to hit your social feed? Netflix just launched a new feature that allows you to suggest content to specific friends on Facebook without posting publicly.

Netflix users who connect their account with Facebook will be prompted at end of each film or television show with a question like: Who else would enjoy “Pretty Little Liars”? But instead of posting it as a status update, users are now able to selectively recommend it to Facebook friends of their choosing.

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In turn, the friend can ignore, reply or notify the sender that they watched the content. Recommendations will appear at the top of subscribers’ Netflix home screens and in Facebook Messenger, if they are logged on, or sent by e-mail through Facebook.

This is somewhat of a reversal on Facebook’s mission to get everyone to share everything with everyone online. The new feature will allow users to be a little more discreet in who sees personal recommendations. Your sister may be interested in your binge on “House of Cards” while you “worked” from home. Your boss, maybe not so much.

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And for Netflix the new feature provides a more engaging way for its users to find enjoyable content, rather than relying on algorithms or by scanning an endless number of titles.

The feature is available on the website, iPad, iPhone, PS3, Xbox, and several set-top boxes and smart TVs. It will be available on additional platforms in the coming months.

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