{"id":473600,"date":"2026-05-07T20:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T20:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473600\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T20:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T20:26:16","slug":"netflix-has-its-own-impressive-ai-powered-voice-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473600\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix has its own, impressive AI-powered voice search"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers<\/a>, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.<\/p>\n

A small subset of Netflix viewers just got a new way to find movies and TV shows. The streamer recently started to test an AI-powered native voice search feature with some subscribers, prompting them to press the Netflix button on their remote control to ask for viewing recommendations.<\/p>\n

Once viewers press the button, they\u2019re presented with a few search suggestions, including phrases like \u201cI need a good cry,\u201d \u201cwatch in the background,\u201d and \u201chelp me stay awake.\u201d Each of these suggestions leads to a set of viewing recommendations, but there\u2019s also an \u201cAsk\u201d button with a waveform icon. Select it, and you\u2019ll start an AI-powered voice search that delivers viewing recommendations in response to natural language prompts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had access to this new voice search feature for a few days now, and found it remarkable for two reasons: While still in beta, it\u2019s impressive in its ability to serve up appropriate and interesting viewing recommendations to even the most esoteric requests. It also squarely circumvents the voice assistants and search features built into smart TVs and streaming devices, highlighting the power struggles between TV OS platforms and the streaming services running on them.<\/p>\n

Netflix is currently testing its new voice search feature with select members in the U.S. I got access to the feature on a Chromecast with Google TV streaming dongle and a TCL Google TV, but wasn\u2019t able to access it on Roku or Fire TV devices. Even users who have multiple devices running the same smart TV OS have reported<\/a> that they were only able to access it on a subset of those devices.<\/p>\n

Playing with the feature for a few days, I was impressed by its ability to find relevant picks for a wide variety of requests, ranging from the rather obvious (\u201cdate night movies from the \u201980s\u201d served up The Breakfast Club) to the very specific (\u201cI like the music of Brian Eno, what should I watch\u201d resulted in a suggestion for Abstract: The Art of Design).<\/p>\n

I stress-tested the feature more than people usually would during day-to-day use, but it was able to make solid recommendations in response to unusual requests. I honestly thought asking for \u201cfun kids TV shows about death\u201d wouldn\u2019t get me any results. Instead, it served up A Series of Unfortunate Events and Raising Dion, which both were on point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had too much coffee today, what should I watch\u201d resulted in Netflix suggesting a \u201claid-back\u201d Sheng Wang comedy special and the Headspace Guide to Sleep. When I simply said \u201churt people hurt people,\u201d the Netflix app responded with \u201cHurt people do hurt people. Here are some of the stories behind that,\u201d followed by recommendations for 13 Reasons Why and It\u2019s Okay to Not Be Okay.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Netflix\u2019s voice search doesn\u2019t appear to be tapping into the service\u2019s personalization engine right now. When you ask for recommendations based on what you\u2019ve recently watched, the app\u2019s response is \u201cWe can\u2019t answer that one yet, but we\u2019re working on it!\u201d (Speaking of which: All responses are shown as written text. Netflix\u2019s voice search doesn\u2019t use any voice output of its own, which I didn\u2019t mind at all.)<\/p>\n

Responses are often accompanied by suggestions to further narrow your results, including \u201cmore unhinged\u201d and \u201cmore bittersweet.\u201d However, narrowing down recommendations this way doesn\u2019t always work. A search for Cantonese comedies yielded many relevant results. But once I followed Netflix\u2019s suggestion to narrow those results by pressing the \u201cmore quirky\u201d button, the streamer suddenly tried to sell me BoJack Horseman as a \u201cCantonese comedy with a quirky twist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image: Janko Roettgers<\/p>\n

There are some things that can trip up Netflix\u2019s voice search. When I asked for Blaxploitation movies, the app\u2019s voice recognition system instead heard me ask for \u201cBlack exploitation movies,\u201d and declined to provide me with any results. Which, yeah, probably the right choice.<\/p>\n

A request for \u201cTV shows about porn\u201d was also declined, but Netflix did happily serve up plenty of suggestions when I requested \u201csteamy TV shows.\u201d That\u2019s notably different from Google\u2019s Gemini assistant on Google TV, which informed me that it could not fulfill that request, adding passive-aggressively: \u201cI can help you find appropriate shows if you\u2019d like.\u201d That alone shows why a service like Netflix might want to have its own voice search instead of relying on the one provided by your TV or streaming device maker.<\/p>\n

Another major reason for Netflix to build its own voice search: The streamer wants viewers to remain in its own app, and exclusively recommends Netflix content. Smart TV OS platform operators like Google, Roku, and Amazon on the other hand would like consumers to use their own, universal search that also recommends results from their own services and services from partners they can monetize.<\/p>\n

This power struggle between platforms and publishers has been going on for years, and has also long extended into voice search. For consumers, the results have been confusing: When you press your remote\u2019s mic button while using Hulu or Disney Plus, you\u2019ll most likely access the universal search function built into your TV or streaming device, with results from the app you\u2019re in intermixed with those of other publishers. Do the same while browsing Netflix or YouTube, and you\u2019re only searching the catalogs of those respective apps.<\/p>\n

Thanks to their market share, YouTube and Netflix have so much power that they have been able to demand voice routing privileges not available to smaller publishers. Both companies initially just used that privilege for speech-to-text functionality, essentially feeding your voice queries into the same search fields you can also access with your remote to search for a show by name.<\/p>\n

With the emergence of LLMs, both services now extend those privileges for more full-featured voice assistance. YouTube recently launched its own conversational AI tools<\/a>, allowing viewers to access Gemini-powered voice features on devices made by Amazon, Roku, and others.<\/p>\n

Just like YouTube\u2019s implementation, Netflix\u2019s take on AI voice search shows that consumers can benefit if apps have access to the mic. It just shouldn\u2019t take massive market share \u2014 or a branded button on your remote \u2014 for publishers to get to build such experiences.<\/p>\n

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