BingeNext features, in plain language
This page is the complete inventory of what BingeNext does. If a feature is not described here, it does not exist yet. If you are trying to work out whether the free tier covers what you need, or what the paid tier actually buys you, this is the honest version rather than the marketing version.
BingeNext is a recommendation engine for television and film. You tell it titles you already love, it works out what you respond to, and it hands back a shortlist of things to watch with the streaming service for each one. It is not a streaming service itself, and it does not need access to any of your streaming accounts.
The four recommendation modes
Every mode uses the same underlying engine. What changes is the question you are answering when you start.
- TV mode. Enter series, films, or a mix of both, and get television series back. This is the one to use when you have finished something and want the next long watch.
- Movie mode. The same input, pointed at films instead. Better for a single evening where you do not want to commit to eight hours of a new series.
- Couple mode. Two people each enter their own favorites. The engine scores candidates against both sets of taste rather than averaging one person out of the decision, which is the usual failure of picking together.
- Mood mode. Start from how you want to feel instead of from a title. Useful when nothing sounds good and you cannot name a single show you are in the mood for.
TV recommendations · Movie recommendations · Couple recommendations · Mood recommendations
What you get without paying
BingeNext is free to use. Without an account you get 1 recommendation per day; with a free account you get 3 per day plus 3 couple recommendations per month. All four recommendation modes, including the Mood Engine, are open to free users.
The free tier is metered rather than crippled. All four modes are open to free users, including mood mode, and every recommendation comes with the same streaming availability information a paying account sees. Signing in also lets you keep favorites and a watch-later list, which the iPhone app and the website share.
- Without an account: 1 recommendation set per day, no sign-up, no card.
- With a free account: 3 per day, plus 3 couple recommendations per month.
- Favorites and a watch-later list that follow you between the web and the iPhone app.
- The full blog archive, which is free to read and does not require an account.
What Premium adds
Premium costs $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year, which works out to about $3.33 a month and saves 16% against paying monthly. It does two things: it removes the caps, and it hands you the controls.
The controls are the part worth paying attention to. Without them you are asking the engine for a good answer. With them you are telling it what kind of answer you want, which matters more than people expect.
- Unlimited recommendations, with no daily cap and no monthly cap on couple mode.
- Focus types: pick up to 3 per request from a long catalogue of them, covering things like slow-burn, mind-bending, character-driven, dialogue-heavy, visually stunning and musical.
- Maturity rating filters, so results stay inside the ratings you want in the house.
- Release-year filters, for when you want something from a particular era or specifically want something recent.
- Completed-series-only mode, which excludes anything still running. This is for people who have been burned by a cancellation and will not start another unfinished show.
- A dislike system. Titles you reject are remembered and kept out of later recommendations.
- Bingeability insights on individual series.
- Saved couple profiles and compatibility scoring, so two people do not have to retype their favorites every time.
- Season premiere alerts and a watch calendar, including a calendar feed you can subscribe to in your normal calendar app.
- An ad-free experience in the iPhone app. Free accounts see ads there; Premium accounts do not.
How the engine decides
Most similar-titles tools stop at genre, which is why they keep offering you another police procedural because you once watched a police procedural. Genre is the least interesting thing about a show. BingeNext reads the titles you enter for the things that actually made you stay: the pacing, the tone, the kind of humor, how much it leans on character against plot, and the feeling it left you with.
Because of that, entering two or three titles produces noticeably better results than entering one. One title is ambiguous. Three titles have something in common, and that common thread is the thing worth matching on.
Each recommendation comes back with a short explanation of why it was picked and where you can stream it, so you can dismiss the wrong ones quickly instead of researching each title yourself.
What BingeNext deliberately does not do
Being clear about the edges is more useful than pretending there are none.
- It does not connect to your streaming accounts. There is nothing to log in to and no viewing history imported from Netflix or anywhere else. It only knows what you tell it.
- It is not a catalogue search. If you already know the title you want, a search box on the service is faster.
- Streaming availability moves constantly, and rights differ by country. Availability shown with a recommendation can be out of date or wrong for your region, so treat it as a strong hint rather than a guarantee.
- Recommendations are suggestions produced by a model, not verified facts about a title. Details like season counts can occasionally be wrong.
Where it runs
BingeNext runs in any browser at bingenext.com and as an iPhone app on the App Store. Both share one engine and one account, so favorites and watch-later items saved on one show up on the other. There is no Android app at present.
Try it before you decide
The fastest way to judge whether any of this works for you is to give it three titles you loved and see what comes back. That takes about a minute and does not require an account.
Get TV recommendations · What should I watch next? · Recommendations across streaming services · Frequently asked questions