You can finally stop previews from automatically playing on Netflix

Netflix.
(Image credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Our long national nightmare of autoplaying Netflix previews has finally come to an end.

The streaming service on Thursday announced it's rolling out a long-awaited feature: the ability to turn off previews that automatically play while users are browsing the service. This has been a common complaint about Netflix's user experience for quite some time, as subscribers found themselves darting around the Netflix app as not to settle on a movie or TV show for too long and spark a trailer. Search the phrase "Netflix" and "autoplay" any given day on Twitter, and you'd find no shortage of grievances.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.