Short video platforms’ popularity has forced big giants like Instagram, Youtube to start their short video apps to woo the huge user base.
Netflix-owned Fast Laughs is a new addition to the short video started recently.
Netflix, one of the largest OTT platforms, is working on short video formats for the last few months. Initially, it started experimenting with a new tab of short videos in its mobile app.
How Fast Laughs Work?
The company announced that the new feature is rolling out to iOS users. It’s not an independent app yet. It will work in a dedicated tab inside the Netflix mobile app.
With the help of this feature, users can enjoy short video clips from popular comedy movies/shows. Users can also add the clips to their future watch list. It has an option to skip the short video and watch the whole show on Netflix. Users can react to the videos.
Initially, short clips will be based on the comic shows/videos and the exclusive events of comedians like Ali Wong.
Netflix informed TechCrunch that it will not only include the Netflix Originals but also the full catalogue from Netflix’s huge database. The company did not reveal how many movies or shows will be part of this new tab.
The tab has a visible space at the bottom of the navigation menu next to “Coming Soon”. The launching of this new feature tells how successful was the trial.
Netflix is regularly hijacking social media platforms’ ideas to make the user’s experience better. Netflix also introduced the ” Stories” feature to show short videos, called previews. Now, the OTT giant has jumped to the popular vertical short video format liked by users.
Key Features of Fast Laughs
While using Fast Laughs, it looks like a clone of TikTok. Full-Screen vertical videos swapping vertically will give you a Tiktok experience. Netflix also declared Tiktok as main rival while introducing this platform. Engagement buttons like commenting, emojis, and other reactions are placed the way Tiktok did.
Sharing button to WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram is quite visible to give a better user experience. My List feature allows saving the video to watch later.
Though Netflix did not decide about the exact size of the clips, it ranges from 15 to 45 seconds.
Some of the short video clips may not be appropriate for children. Considering this fact, the Fast Laughs feature is not available with Netflix Kids profiles. Users can also filter the clips based on their requirements.
Talking about the current feature, Netflix Product Designer Kim Ho said:
“We wanted to give members a fun, fast, and intuitive way to discover our catalogue by letting these comedic moments across genres speak for themselves in a mobile-native, full-screen experience. We worked hard to cut to just what was necessary in an intentional and minimalist UI design, from the transparent tab bar to ways to react at the moment (‘LOL’) and plan their next laugh by adding to their list.”
Kim Ho has vast experience in product design. She earlier worked with big giants like Facebook, Coin, etc.
Through Fast Laughs, Netflix wants users to spend more time on its mobile app. The company plans to release the new feature on the Android platform in the coming months.
