Have you ever felt like you keep seeing the same song, show, or movie recommendation on a streaming service? Recommendation fatigue is real, and it can be frustrating to deal with if you're trying to find new options or stray away from your usual tastes.There are a few reasons why this happens, but not all hope is lost: you can revamp or tweak your recommendations if you know where to look.Here's what you need to know so you can overcome this fatigue.
Your streaming recommendations can feel repetitive If you've wanted to scrub your algorithm clean while browsing streaming platforms because of how repetitive or irrelevant they seem, you would not be alone.Sometimes, streaming apps can keep showing you content that you are not interested in, which can be frustrating when you're looking to expand your horizon.This has made me rack up several streaming-related doomscrolling hours, looking for a perfect watch (and sometimes trying to find new songs to refresh my library) that never comes.
Two of my most-used streaming platforms, Netflix and Spotify, are notorious for pushing new and popular releases, even if they don't match your activity at all, which is to be expected.However, this comes with the obstacle of your actual recommendations and personalized picks being buried.Oftentimes, mainstream apps promote their original content (exclusive titles, for instance), which is why you may be missing out on content that actually aligns with your activity.
The content you see is also influenced by several promotional decisions, so the recommendation fatigue is very real.How streaming recommendation systems work To begin fixing your algorithm, it's important you know what factors actually contribute to your recommendations.Netflix, for instance, considers basic factors like your viewing history and ratings to drive recommendations.
But beyond this vital information, variables like the time of day you stream, how long you stream a title, which devices you frequent, and specific information about the title itself are also important in setting up your personalized recommendations. Related The Best Music Streaming Services of 2025 Searching for the ultimate music app? Discover how features, sound quality, and catalogs stack up to find the perfect match for your vibe.Posts By Barry Peacock Spotify also uses a similar system through its "taste profile" mechanism that builds your personalized listening preferences over time.Actions, such as searching, listening, skipping, or saving to Your Library, influence Spotify's interpretation of this taste profile.
These factors, common among major streaming peers, will then affect what you see on your home feed, content that is shown when you search for titles or names, as well as general, content-specific recommendations (like songs that play during Smart Shuffle on Spotify or Netflix's "More Like This").As you spend more time streaming on an app, your streaming habits shape how your algorithm looks, personalizing picks to suit your tastes.Be careful when you engage Before you begin to revamp your streaming algorithm, something to keep in mind when streaming on any platform of your choice is to be wary of how you engage with its catalog.
At the core of it, your recommendations on these apps are driven by what you stream, how you engage with it, and how long/frequently you engage with recommended content as well.If you regularly allow background play or engage in mindless streaming (or even hate watching, which happens to the best of us), it can ultimately affect your recommendations, so make sure you're being deliberate with your streaming.We all engage in content we don't like, but this can be indicated through features like ratings and blocking, as well as streaming content that does not even factor into your recommendations (like Spotify's Private Session).
Keep an eye on what you engage in, and don't be shy to rate or hide what you don't like. How you can fix your recommendations The good thing about a broken recommendation system is that it can be fixed.Streaming platforms, from audio to video, allow you to jump-start or refresh your recommendations, if only you know which settings to change.How-To Geek Report: Subscribe and never miss what matters Unlock your tech-savvy potential and master the digital world with How-To Geek.
Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.You can unsubscribe anytime.On Netflix, you can reboot your recommendations by starting a new profile entirely (which works wonders if you hate your algorithm).
If you don't want to start over, you can also do things like hiding your viewing history, regularly rating everything you watch, and constantly refreshing your watch list.Spotify makes it a bit easier to reboot your recommendations: you can take advantage of features like "Exclude playlist from taste profile" and the new "Exclude track from taste profile," as well as Private Session (Spotify's version of Incognito Mode).For podcasts, engagement with individual episodes and hosts (liking, following, and creating podcast folders on desktop) goes a long way.
Even your YouTube algorithm is easy to fix, and once you get the gist, you will know where to look when fixing recommendations across your streaming apps.Not everyone wants to use their streaming time to fix their recommendations.If you are actively looking to refresh your streaming feeds, fixing a few settings can be worthwhile and go a long way.
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