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If you’re an avid Netflix viewer, you likely know the service is less than stellar when it comes to organization. Like many apps and programs these days, you rely so heavily on the algorithm to deliver you content that it can be difficult to locate simple topics or genres you’re interested in. Rather than using Netflix’s categories, however, try using their secret codes instead.
Now, these secret codes aren’t maliciously kept from you by Netflix. The company simply uses a system of codes to denote different categories of content. Each broad category has its own code (20, in total), but within each of those categories exists a number of hyper-specific categories with their own codes.
For example, Netflix’s “Action & Adventure” genre has a code of 1365, but within that category there are 14 subcategories, including “Hijacking movies” (20541), “Spy action & adventure” (10702), and “Comic book and superhero movies” (10118). In total, there are 267 unique codes to use. But where do you find them, and how you do use these codes anyway?
How to use Netflix’s secret codes to browse better
To browse all 267 of Netflix’s secret codes, go to Netflix-Codes.com. The site has all codes organized by category for you to peruse, or quickly jump from category to category from the sidebar.
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Once you have a code you want to use, you’ll need to go back to Netflix. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to browse with Netflix codes in the app on a smartphone or tablet. These codes only work when watching Netflix from a desktop browser. Hopefully that changes in the future, but for now, you’ll need to watch Netflix on your computer to take advantage of this trick.
You can simply enter your code of choice into Netflix’s search bar, or go there directly from the following link, replacing the (xx) with your code of choice: https://netflix.com/browse/genre/xx.
If you don’t want to refer to this code site every time you want to browse more specifically, you can use the Chrome extension “Better Browse for Netflix.” This extension adds a drop-down on your Netflix window, giving you access to all categories and subcategories. It’s a speedy way to take advantage of the code system without needing to know any of the codes in the first place.
[CNET]
