Netflix is testing a new approach to recommendations

Netflix is testing a feature that will recommend content to users using human curated “collections” — rather than an algorithm.

Netflix’s recommendation feature goes back to the days when the company only mailed DVDs to customers — and it’s often been derided as being woefully (and sometimes hilariously) inaccurate in helping you find something to watch.

Right now the feature is being tested on iOS devices only.

Subscribers on the app see “collections” that Netflix says are hand-created by humans.

The company, meanwhile, has a vested interest in being able to generate accurate and solid recommendations — the more relevant content it can recommend to subscribers, the longer they are likely to keep subscribing.

This will become increasingly important as Netflix begins to lose the streaming rights to shows to rival streamers and has to rely more on its own original products — which may not have the same name recognition as content from major production companies such as Disney and Universal.