Netflix Shows Mercy, Allows Users to Turn Off Its Autoplay Feature

Netflix has a vast library of licensed and original titles for users to navigate. But selecting something to watch comes at a terrible price. The service triggers an autoplay option when a title is highlighted, running a trailer for the film or television show that can prove distracting and jarring when browsing. Worse, there was no option to turn it off. You were going to watch a preview for Orange Is the New Black whether you wanted to or not.

This mandatory viewing now appears to be a thing of the past, as Netflix has now decided to offer viewers the ability to toggle the feature on or off. All you need to do is navigate to the Netflix home page, log in to your profile, and uncheck the “Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices” option. That will stop trailers from running automatically while you briefly consider whether it’s something you’d like to watch.

The move comes after a barrage of hate-feedback from viewers, who have tweeted and created YouTube videos demanding that the feature no longer be forced onto eyeballs, in the manner of A Clockwork Orange.

You can, of course, adjust autoplay settings for episodes as well, just by unchecking “Autoplay next episode in a series on all devices.”