Netflix says it is testing a feed, called Extras, with trailers, photos, and alerts about shows in its mobile app
Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent @https://twitter.com/jank0 FOLLOW — Netflix has begun to test a new feed in its mobile app that aggregates trailers … Tweets: @jank0 Tweets: Janko Roettgers / @jank0 : I scrolled through Netflix yesterday... and suddenly realized that I don't usually scroll through Netflix. A new feed! Kinda like Instagram! Turns out I'm part of a test group. https://variety.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Netflix's Extras test extends a discovery arc the company has been building since it launched 30-second vertical preview videos in 2018: instead of waiting for subscribers to browse rows, push promotional material at them in a scrollable feed. The reporter's own reaction — realizing he rarely scrolls Netflix at all — captures the problem Extras targets: the app's grid rewards decisive viewers, not idle ones.
The experiment also fits a cross-industry pattern already visible by 2019, when Twitter began testing a TikTok-style Explore feed amid similar experiments at Spotify and Reddit. Netflix's own coverage since then reads as a slow convergence on that format, from the curated expert-built Collections test on iOS months later to the My Netflix tab in 2023.
First-order effects
- Test-group subscribers get a new discovery surface inside the mobile app where trailers, photos, and show alerts arrive as a feed rather than through the browse grid or email notifications.
Second-order effects
- If Extras graduates from test to default, Netflix's own creative teams gain a second distribution channel alongside curated Collections, shifting how its marketing decides which shows get promoted.
Third-order effects
- The pattern holds across Netflix's own timeline: the feed experiments culminate in a dedicated vertical-video Clips tab rolled out across nine markets in 2026, suggesting streaming discovery is consolidating around social-feed mechanics rather than catalog grids.
The trend: Streaming apps are progressively absorbing the vertical, algorithmic feed format pioneered by social platforms, with Netflix iterating from previews to Extras to a full Clips tab over seven years.