David Farnor | On 06, Feb 2020

Netflix is always trying out new features and additions, from variable speed playback to instant replays, a shuffle button for TV episodes and even a section highlighting its most watched titles. But throughout the changing features, new originals and painful removals, one constant has remained the same since it was introduced: the near-universal frustration felt by people when they are browsing Netflix and up pops a trailer for a movie or series.

Now, Netflix has finally taken the step many have asked for: added the option to turn off the autoplay previews.

“Some people find this feature helpful. Others not so much,” Netflix admitted in a tweet announcing the new settings. “We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear — members can now control whether or not they see [them].”

Now, the only step needed is for Netflix to change its other autoplay preview feature, which interrupts the end of a film or TV show with a trailer for another title. That has, to some degree, been taken care of: there are two types of autoplay settings on Netflix that can now be changed. One is the autoplay of trailers when browsing the Netflix library. The other is the autoplay that occurs between episodes of a TV show.

That means that after a powerful or sad ending of an episode in the middle of a box set, audiences can now avoid having their mood killed by jumping to the next chapter – or for those who just enjoy watching the end credits, talk over them to discuss what just happened, or like to listen to the soundtrack, there’s no risk of being interrupted.

The autoplay trailers for TV shows and movies when you get to the end of a film, however, are still in place and can’t currently be changed.

To update settings, users simply have to sign in through a web browser, go to Manage Profiles, then select your profile. There are then two tick boxes: Autoplay next episode in a series on all devices, and Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices.

Checking or unchecking this box will then take effect on all devices that profile is signed into. If it doesn’t change, you can switch to another profile and then back to yours to force it to reload with the updated setting.

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