By Dan Moren
December 8, 2016 11:25 PM PT
Hulu aims to avoid mix of chocolate, peanut butter with new profiles
Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
Following in the footsteps of the folks over at Netflix, Hulu is at last adding the ability to create separate profiles under a single account. So, for example, if you totally hypothetically had a girlfriend who enjoyed watching The Bachelor1, it wouldn’t necessarily keep showing up in your queue.
Hulu will let you have up to six profiles for the same account. Unsurprisingly, the service also wants to use this as an opportunity to serve you up more programming, so when you create a new profile, it’ll ask you about the shows you like so that it can build recommendations and so on. Profiles will contain their own watchlists, viewing history, names, recommendations, and so on. Like Netflix, there’s also a Kids specific option that filters out mature content.
While Hulu users on the web can start creating profiles today (nominally, anyway–it wasn’t there when I looked), the feature will be rolling out to other devices in the coming weeks.
I’m glad to see Hulu embrace this. I share my account not only with my girlfriend, but also with my parents, and I’m sure they don’t want to be reminded that there’s a new episode of Arrow every week. I am curious to see how something like Apple’s new TV app will take this into account, though: since it doesn’t have multiple users, will it just recommend whatever the primary account holder is watching? Unlike our phones or even many people’s tablets, a TV is often a multi-person experience, and catering to each of those people can definitely be a challenge.
- Not that I’d ever call it a problem! Were it to be anything beyond a hypothetical. ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the supernatural detective story All Souls Lost, is out now.]
If you appreciate articles like this one, support us by becoming a Six Colors subscriber. Subscribers get access to an exclusive podcast, members-only stories, and a special community.