Netflix launches Highlights, its TikTok-style mobile video feed

Netflix is rolling out a major redesign of its mobile app, centred on a TikTok-style vertical video feed called “Highlights”. The strategic shift signals far more than it initially appears to.

Netflix is introducing “Highlights” (or “Clips”), a scrollable vertical-video feed for mobile devices modelled on TikTok and Reels. Revealed in its Q1 2026 shareholder letter, the complete mobile-app redesign is now being rolled out. Generative AI will also be used to make recommendations more precise.

The familiar home screen is therefore on its way out. Soon, when opening Netflix on a mobile or tablet device, users will no longer first see “the top 10 most-watched series”, “today’s picks” or “only on Netflix”. Instead, the screen will be dominated by a vertical stream of trailers and extracts from series and films.

Named “Highlights”, the feed is intended to help viewers find something that suits them without looking elsewhere. Every clip links directly to the full programme: tap once and the complete episode starts in its standard format. The experience is clearly reminiscent of TikTok, which Netflix itself cites as a reference point and which similarly holds users’ attention through its video feed.

Netflix has carefully prepared the overhaul. It has been testing vertical video feeds since May 2025, giving it months of behavioural data before competitors had even grasped the scale of the change. The company had already explored the idea with “Fast Laughs” in 2021. This time, however, the launch is global and comes with a full mobile-interface revamp, following the same rationale as the television-app redesign introduced in June 2025.

Streaming’s TikTok-style shift, part two

Netflix detailed these changes in its first-quarter 2026 letter to shareholders. Through this redesign, the platform is pursuing the attention captured by TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, particularly among under-30s. Video podcasts already “over-index” on mobile, indicating that users naturally turn to their phones for certain formats.

The redesign also brings several new features. “Add to My List” lets users save programmes that interest them, “Share” sends them to contacts by text message or via social media, while “Explore” offers a personalised selection of titles.

Generative artificial intelligence will also be used to refine recommendations through a deeper understanding of content. Netflix is not merely replicating TikTok’s interface: it aims to reproduce its engagement mechanics while remaining within the bounds of its own catalogue.

“And this is only the beginning”

“The aim is to make the mobile experience as entertaining as the content itself, and to provide ever more personalised and immersive moments that meet every desire, at every moment,” Netflix’s director of new technologies Elizabeth Stone told Le Parisien. “And this is only the beginning.”

Netflix does not portray this redesign as an additional feature, but as the opening stage of a deeper transformation. Disney+ has also introduced a similar feature called “Verticals”, while Peacock has begun testing short-form feeds on mobile. Long confined to social networks, the vertical format is on the verge of becoming the standard for content discovery across all streaming platforms.