Sky has said that viewers who’re unable to find something interesting to watch will now be able to ask it for recommendations using their voice.
The update to the Sky Q service means users can now press and hold the microphone button on their remote and ask “What should I watch?” and get various content suggestions based on their viewing habits. Sky seems confident that it will then be able to relieve your boredom by playing something that catches your attention.
Apart from the voice aspect, the new update sounds similar to Netflix’s new Shuffle Play feature, which plays a random show based on the viewer’s tastes at the click of a button. But with Sky Q, it should have a much wider scope.
That’s because Sky Q offers content not only from itself, but also from other providers such as the BBC, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.
Sky said it will break up its suggestions into categories such as “Because you watched”, showing shows and movies similar to things you’ve seen previously, and “New series for you”, which obviously will recommend entirely new series based on your personal tastes. A third category will recommend content from the top 10 shows on Sky for that week.
Sky said it’s throwing in a couple more voice search commands this week too. They are “Get ready for 2021” and “Sky unmissable”. Saying either of those will trigger trailers for new series and movies that are coming to Sky Q later this year, it said.
With such an extensive library to choose from that includes a growing range of HDR content, we’re hopeful that the new feature should prove its worth. As always though, its success will be dependent on the underlying algorithm that looks at your previous viewing history and tries to find titles similar to the types of things you like to watch.
If it hits the mark, it could save people from wasting hours of their time scrolling endlessly to find something entertaining to watch.