Netflix is having a moment. Its new feature, Moments, is not

This week, Netflix launched a new feature called Moments that allows subscribers to share their favorite moments from the platform’s massive library of content. The only problem is, it doesn’t actually do that.

Here’s how Moments (currently available for the iOS app and coming soon for Android) is meant to work: Subscribers can tap the screen at any time while watching Netflix content on their phone, and find a Moments tab in the bottom left corner. They then have the option to hit Save and capture whichever scene they’re watching—either in a library of saved Moments, accessible in the My Netflix section of the app, or in a message or social media post, which they can send out by tapping the familiar paper airplane-shaped icon beneath each Moment. Easy-peasy.

“Since we know how much our members enjoy talking about key moments from their favorite shows and movies, this feature makes sharing those moments simpler,” a representative from Netflix said over email. “Our hope is that it will not only let members share their thoughts on their favorite moments but also discover new ones.”

After taking the new tool out for a spin, though, it appears as if thoughts are pretty much all members will be able to share with it.

I tried saving a Moment from the 2017 Comedy Central show Detroiters, which Netflix just made available for the first time since creator/star Tim Robinson went on to develop a massive cult hit comedy, I Think You Should Leave, for the streaming service. It seemed like an ideal usage of the feature—sharing a personal-favorite funny clip from a new-to-Netflix show with a built-in Netflix audience. When I clicked through to share it on my Instagram Story, though, no video clip followed—just a link to where viewers could watch that clip… if they happen to subscribe to Netflix already, and if they already have the app on their phone. (That’s probably too many ifs!) 

I had not shared a moment, but rather a conditional, digital bookmark.

Filling the screen behind the link was the Detroiters logo, not even a still from the scene. Anyone who clicks on it–assuming they do have the Netflix app up and running–will find not a self-contained clip, but rather that the episode begins to play from the point where I’d saved it. Anyone who clicks on it and doesn’t have the app will be whisked away, clip-free, to Netflix’s dedicated landing page for Detroiters. 

Not that a bookmark is a bad thing, necessarily. Some viewers working their way through the four seasons of Brooklyn Nine-Nine currently available on Netflix might want to keep tabs on some of their favorite funny scenes to return to after they’ve finished the series. Others might want to return directly to the most unhinged moments from Lee Daniels’s over-the-top demonic thriller The Deliverance. But this feature ultimately seems designed more with an eye toward generating conversations, rather than highlight reels. 

The ability to actually share whichever random clip from Netflix’s content would be a helpful resource for the kind of viewer who loves to gush or vent online about what they’re watching. In addition to Netflix’s professed goals for this feature—hyped-up viewers sharing hidden-gem scenes to convince followers to join them in watching—there’s endless potential for finding the next great clip or reaction gif. As things currently stand, anyone who wants to gif-ify a specific chunk of a Netflix show would have to be handy with editing software; if Moments made that process easier, it could help embed more Netflix clips into the DNA of the internet. (At least, for a while.)

Apparently, there’s so much demand for short clips from beloved films and shows to pass around on TikTok, studios like NBC/Universal and Paramount have been experimenting with making their content “chunkable.” Last year, for instance, Paramount uploaded the entire 107-minute film Mean Girls to TikTok in 23 parts, to celebrate October 3, which has become known as Mean Girls Day. (A scene in the film takes place on October 3. And yes, that does seem like kind of a flimsy reason to create an internet holiday.)

Sure, it would be an invitation for rampant piracy if viewers could just share the entirety of any show or movie on Netflix in a handful of clips. But it wouldn’t take much to set a short limit for the length of clips users can share, and how many clips they can share from a single program. If Netflix wanted to make it happen, the tech would not be an issue. But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards any time soon. (“At this time, there are no plans to allow members to share actual clips off service,” the representative from Netflix said.)

Fortunately for the platform, Netflix just had an incredibly successful third-quarter, and with the second season of Squid Game closing out the year and a just-announced John Mulaney talk show on deck for 2025, releasing a flop feature will have no tangible impact.

But this Moment will likely end up being something that passes most people by.