Here's one upgrade I want from Netflix and Disney Plus now

Here's one upgrade I want from Netflix and Disney Plus now

[I don't want to keep watching "Fate: The Winx Saga". I don't even want to watch the last two minutes of the credits of "Dig". And I just want to rewatch the last four episodes of "Shits Creek".

The most annoying thing about Netflix, as with almost all good streaming services, is the lack of queue management. If you're like me, the "Continue Watching" section of Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, etc. is clogged with either A) stuff you don't want to watch anymore, or B) stuff you've already watched, minus the last few minutes.

To at least give Netflix some credit, they have rolled out a solution to problem A, namely an option to remove titles from the "Continue Watching" column. However, like millions of subscribers with a variety of other devices like Roku and Fire Stick, I primarily stream Netflix on my TV using Apple TV. Many also watch on their laptops.

No doubt, sampling the shows will be more cumbersome. I tried the first episode of the YA fantasy series "Fate: The Winx Saga" and decided it wasn't for me. However, it kept showing up on "Continue Watching" until I finally opened the Netflix app on my phone to get rid of it.

Other streaming services don't even offer this option. Come on, roll it out to the website and the TV app.

Meanwhile, no streaming service offers a way to address problem B. Disney Plus wants me to continue watching all episodes of Wander Vision, all episodes of The Mandalorian, the movie Soul, and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. Because I did not let time run out on all of them (apologies to the hard-working contributors listed in the end credits).

To stop Disney Plus from prompting you to resume watching, you must play each episode/film and watch it to the end or fast-forward until the very last minute.

There is no way to tell the service, "I saw this!" There is no way to tell them that you have seen it. It would also be helpful if you watch episodes on someone else's account, such as if you watched an episode at a friend's house.

All of this applies to Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime Video (Peacock does not have a "continue watching" section). However, there is one streaming app that does queue management correctly.

The Apple TV app (available on non-Apple TV 4K devices) makes it easy to manage your watch list; the Apple TV app pulls in shows and movies you watch on other services, such as Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu. Think of it like a streaming inbox.

The "Up Next" line does exactly what it says: it shows you new episodes in your queue. However, if you have already seen it, or do not wish to see it, you can remove it! Press and hold (or click the three dots on a laptop) on a thumbnail to bring up the options menu. You can remove it from the "Next" row, mark it as watched, or remove it from the most recently viewed episodes.

Now, this does not affect the streaming service queue. For example, marking WandaVision episode 6 as watched in the Apple TV app will not be reflected in Disney Plus. The latter will still show the episode as unwatched.

In other words, this is a nice workaround if you use the Apple TV app to watch all your shows. However, the actual service needs to add more features to manage the queue. We are streaming more than ever these days, and with more and more streaming services competing for our subscriptions, an easy, hassle-free experience is invaluable.

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