Netflix May Bring Back Its Left Menu. Where Did Categories Go?

On November 3, What's on Netflix reported a new test of Netflix's TV interface: the main menu is moving back to the left. But Categories, removed from the menu in 2025, is still missing. On the same day, Netflix unveiled AI Discover, a new way to browse by mood. Together, these developments raise a timely question about how viewers find their way through Netflix's catalog.

In April 2022, Netflix introduced a Category Hub in the left-hand menu of its TV app. Previously, Categories had appeared in a homepage row. The new hub gave genres a persistent destination, with curated collections and each member’s Top 3 categories based on what they regularly watched.

In May 2025, Netflix redesigned the TV interface around a top menu. Categories lost its shortcut. So did New & Popular. Viewers looking for a genre were directed toward Search, where they could browse a category list or enter a term. New and trending titles appeared in content rows instead.

On November 3, 2026, What’s on Netflix reported that Netflix was testing a return to a slim left-hand navigation rail. The reported menu includes Search, Home, Shows, Movies, Games, and My Netflix. Categories is still missing from that menu. The publication also says categories have since reappeared in a specialized content row elsewhere in the existing experience; it does not date that change or tie it to the sidebar test.

A familiar destination moves into Search

Consider the route to horror films. In 2022, viewers could open Categories from the TV menu, choose Horror, and browse without entering a title. The Category Hub gave genre browsing its own persistent destination.

The 2025 navigation assigns that activity to Search. Netflix’s Help Center tells viewers to select a category from the list inside Search or enter a genre. Someone looking for Horror can still browse it, but first needs to know that Search contains a browsing route.

A category row offers another way in. Viewers may notice one while scrolling through recommendations, even if they never set out to browse genres.

A shortcut in the menu can be remembered and revisited. The route through Search depends on knowing it also contains categories. A row depends on the viewer encountering it.

Getting back to the menu, then finding Horror

The November report describes a slim icon rail that expands into a larger panel. It also describes a video preview placed above the content rows and six visible title tiles per row in the test design.

For someone several rows into the catalog, the first task may simply be getting back to navigation. Netflix’s 2025 Help Center advises pressing Back on the remote to return to the top menu. The reported left rail gives that interaction a different spatial arrangement.

Once the menu is open, a viewer who wants Horror still needs a route to genre browsing. In the 2025 structure, that means finding Search, then choosing Horror from its category list.

Mercury examined 25 streaming apps and documented the variety of top- and left-menu behaviors across television platforms, including how viewers returned to the main menu and how focus was handled. The practical differences appeared during remote-control use, sometimes where screenshots looked much alike.

A useful comparison would start people several rows down, ask them to switch sections, then ask them to find a genre. Both journeys matter: returning to the menu quickly tells us little about whether someone can reach Horror afterward.

Genre, mood, or the scene that catches your eye?

Netflix is also experimenting with discovery routes that start with something other than a genre.

On November 3, it announced AI Discover, a limited test on supported TVs for a small group of US members using English. Its themes include Something Light, Scare Me, Family Movie Night, and Quick Watches. Viewers choose a theme, explore recommended titles, and refine their choices through more specific themes or different suggestions.

These themes organize the catalog around circumstances such as mood, company, and available time. Horror names a genre. Scare Me gives viewers a way to express what they want from their next selection.

Netflix's Clips feature provides another starting point on mobile. Its vertically browsed scenes can catch someone’s attention before they have chosen a genre or title. The redesigned mobile experience, including Clips, was available globally by August 25, 2026.

The choice of organizing principle can change the navigation people expect. In UXbeam's Connected Car study, card sorting revealed different mental models that informed alternative navigation structures. Iterative tree testing helped the team refine the design and achieve higher overall task success.

Netflix faces a related design question with its own content: which browsing routes should remain easy to locate, and which can emerge through recommendations?

How to investigate a navigation change

Start with the way viewers describe what they want. If the team is reconsidering categories, an open card sort can show how participants group representative titles, genres, or browsing activities and what they call those groups. UXbeam's Mental Model Detection surfaces distinct organizing patterns among open-sort responses. A coherent minority grouping may give the team a second structure worth examining. Read more about our built-in Mental Model Detection.

Once there are candidate structures, run a tree test. Ask people to “Find something scary to watch,” a task that does not reveal the destination label. Compare their first choices, detours and final destinations across a Categories-first hierarchy and a Search-first hierarchy. A participant who reaches Horror after searching through several wrong branches tells a different story from someone who finds it directly. UXbeam Tree Testing records the paths behind each outcome and provides insights for iterating and improving the structure.

The next check belongs in an interactive TV prototype. Start viewers several rows into the catalog and ask them to switch sections or return to a previously viewed title. Observe how they use the remote, where focus moves, and which controls cause hesitation. This is the test that can assess the practical difference between a top menu and a left rail.

Mood themes and Clips invite a separate exploratory exercise. Give viewers a plausible viewing situation and observe how they browse until they find something appealing. The important evidence comes from their choices and what they do next, rather than a predetermined destination.

What belongs in the main menu?

Netflix's Category Hub once offered genre browsing a permanent place in the TV menu. The 2025 redesign directed people to Search instead. A specialized category row has also appeared in the existing experience, while Netflix experiments with mood-based themes and short video previews.

If Netflix restores the left sidebar, someone seeking a horror film may recognize where the menu sits and still need to discover that genres live inside Search. Moving the menu back would not restore the old route to Horror. Following that task from the first press to the film selection is the clearest way to see what the redesign has changed.