Netflix wants you to stop doomscrolling and start voting — literally

In its latest experiment, the streamer is turning passive binge-watchers into active participants giving viewers the power to decide what happens while a show is still unfolding. Imagine voting off a contestant or choosing the next course on a live cooking show, right from your phone.

Think of it as “Netflix and participate” instead of “Netflix and chill.”
It’s Netflix’s newest move to make streaming a two-way street, announced by Elizabeth Stone, the platform’s Chief Technology Officer, during TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. The company is testing real-time voting, a feature that lets users vote directly from their TV or mobile screens to influence outcomes in live content.

The feature first appeared on Dinner Time Live with David Chang (a US-based food talk show hosted by celebrity chef David Chang) earlier this year, where viewers debated crucial cultural questions like “tuna sandwich or grilled cheese?” and “soup or salad?”
Next up: the revival of Star Search (a hit US talent competition series from the early 2000s, now rebooted for Netflix), where audiences will decide who advances in real time.

“It’s just an early example of how we think content can be more interactive over time  across devices, between TV and mobile,” Stone said at the event. “A Netflix member can actually feel like they’re part of the story, influence it, and feel immersed in it.”
Voting will appear as on-screen prompts during live broadcasts, with limited time windows miss it, and you lose your shot at digital democracy. Netflix says the feature has shown consistent engagement in early testing, enough to hint that this could become a regular part of its live programming strategy.

For the platform, which is fighting for attention in an overcrowded streaming market, this is less about novelty and more about community. Interactive tools like real-time polls could make viewing feel social again something linear TV had long before algorithms took over.

Netflix has flirted with interactivity before from choose-your-own-adventure hits like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch to viewer polls on Too Hot to Handle and Love Is Blind. But this feels like a new era: less gimmick, more habit-forming engagement.

And that’s not all. Netflix is also experimenting with living-room party games and dynamic home-screen experiences that animate its biggest titles. Its new Halloween Collection, for instance, features spooky effects that make browsing feel more like exploring a haunted mansion than scrolling thumbnails. A Bridgerton collection (based on the hit Regency-era romance series) is already queued up for December.

Stone summed up the shift as Netflix’s move toward “fun, in-the-moment content” the kind that competes less with other streamers and more with everything else fighting for your screen time.

Because in 2025, the future of Netflix might not just be about what you watch but what you do while watching.