The Netflix app now lets you select the start and end points of a clip, so you can share it outside the app. Here’s how it works.
You can now save a clip, and then share it outside the Netflix app
Historically, most streaming services have been allergic to sharing features, as they feared they would facilitate piracy. For many years, even simple screenshots were a no-no.
One day, they realized that the potential gains from a random moment of an original movie or show going viral outweighed the losses of the inevitability of their content being pirated.
So, they started baking custom-made sharing features into their apps, with varying degrees of success.
Netflix, for instance, has had a bookmark feature for a while, but the feature effectively dropped a marker in the timeline, so the user would easily return to that point.
Now, the company has announced a proper “Clip” feature, intended for sharing:
“When you’re watching on mobile, tap the ‘Clip’ button when you hit a scene you love. Now you’ll see the option to adjust where the scene ends, so you can make the clip as long or as short as you like. Once saved, it’ll live in your ‘My Netflix’ tab, where you can rewatch or share whenever you want.”
While this is still more unnecessarily cumbersome than letting users just share clips right from the playback timeline, it is a step in the right direction.
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