Hulu to start testing a new home screen to replace the “confusing” Lineup feature with two different options called “Hulu Picks” and “Unwatched in My Stuff”
Hulu is preparing to update its streaming app in order to make its simpler to navigate to and discover content you want to watch.
Context & Ripple Effects
Hulu's home screen has been rebuilt repeatedly over four years: the automated Watchlist queue arrived in 2015, the Lineup curation feature launched alongside its live TV service in 2017, and a broader UI overhaul in spring 2018 added tools to silence specific recommendations and scrub watch history. Each round has traded off algorithmic suggestion against user control.
This test is the next iteration in that arc — and notably, Hulu is running two candidate replacements at once rather than shipping one design, which suggests the company is letting usage data pick the winner.
First-order effects
- Test users lose the Lineup row built around their favorite genres, sports teams, and shows, and instead choose between Hulu Picks (algorithmic) and Unwatched in My Stuff (their own queued library).
Second-order effects
- Rival platforms face pressure to match the same flexibility: Amazon's Fire TV already moved toward customizable rows and richer home-screen controls in its own interface update, making navigation design an explicit competitive surface rather than chrome.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, streaming home screens consolidate into continuously A/B-tested engagement engines — and as ad-supported tiers expand, whoever controls that default surface also controls where ads and promoted titles appear, sharpening the tension between recommendation algorithms and user-curated queues.
The trend: Streaming services are treating the home screen as a perpetually tested product surface where algorithmic curation and user-controlled queues compete for engagement.