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Netflix is making over your profile icons

They're the little square pictograms that help separate your Netflix recommendations from the ones suited to your Adam Sandler-obsessed roommate.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
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Joan E. Solsman
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Netflix members streamed 500 million hours of Adam Sandler original Netflix movies in the first year and a half they existed. 

 Macall Polay/Netflix

Netflix is taking some inspiration from Queer Eye and making over your profile icon. 

Netflix launched profiles five years ago so that you don't keep getting recommendations based on other people's viewing on the same account -- so your roommate's fixation with Adam Sandler or your kid's obsessive repeat viewings of Finding Dory won't muddy the shows and movies Netflix's recommendation system picks for you. 

Profile icons are the square pictograms that you select whenever Netflix asks you "who's watching?" before you start hunting to find something to stream. Netflix Wednesday said it was refreshing the look of its current selection of cartoony icons. It is also adding an option to pick an avatar from a selection of Netflix originals' character, so you could identify yourself with a photo of Eleven or Luke Cage if you want. 

The change, which Netflix said will be rolling out across the service over the next few weeks, is meant as a way to "show your fandom," but it comes as the service is reining in its limited social aspects. Netflix is removing user reviews of movies and TV shows next month, for example. 

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