You do not have too few things to watch. You have thousands, and no way to agree on one. Comparing two at a time asks a much smaller question.
Try it now
Eight kinds of evening. Find out what you are really in the mood for.
Question 1 of 7 · Which sounds better tonight?
vs
No account, nothing is saved, and these options cannot be changed.
That was PickChill
The same thing you just did, with your own list instead of ours.
- Add your own options, up to 32 - moods, or the films you keep meaning to watch
- Seven questions from eight options, and every answer is yours
- You each answer the same list on your own, and their pick comes back to you
Why you scroll for half an hour and watch nothing
You sit down, you open the streaming app, and you start scrolling. Twenty minutes later you are still scrolling, and now it is too late to start anything long. So you put on something you have seen before, or you give up and go to bed.
That is not laziness, and it is not a shortage of things to watch. It is the opposite. Every title you scroll past is four questions at once - do I want this, does the other person want this, is it too long, is it too serious - and you are answering all four, thousands of times, with no way to write any of it down.
Nothing gets decided because nothing is ever removed from the list. The title you rejected at minute two is still there at minute twenty.
Why being told what to watch does not help
Most tools for this do the same job in two different ways. A wheel gives you a title at random. A recommendation engine gives you a title it worked out from data.
If you honestly do not mind what you watch, a wheel is a good answer. It is faster than anything on this page, and you should use it.
But most people asking this question do mind - that is why they are still scrolling. And being handed a title does not end the evening. It starts the same conversation again, because now one of you has to say yes or no to it out loud, and the other one has to react to that.
| Being handed a title | Comparing two at a time |
|---|---|
| Something else decides, and you check it | You decide, and there is nothing to check |
| It has to know about films | It has to know nothing at all |
| Say no, and nothing has been decided | Every answer removes an option for good |
| Two people get one suggestion, and still disagree | Two people get two answers, and can compare them |
You are not disagreeing about a film
This is the part that changes the evening, and it is why the example at the top of this page is moods rather than film titles.
When two people cannot agree on what to watch, they are almost never disagreeing about a particular film. They are disagreeing about the evening. One of them wants to laugh and stop thinking. The other wants something that holds their attention. Both of those are reasonable, and neither of them is a title.
So split the two questions. Agree the kind of evening first, before anybody names a film. Once you both know you want something funny and short, finding the film takes about two minutes, because you are searching for one thing instead of looking at everything.
How eight moods become one, in seven questions
- Two options are shown side by side.
- You pick the one you would rather have tonight.
- The one you did not pick steps aside and is not asked about again.
Eight options take seven questions. Each one is easier than the last, because the list keeps getting shorter and you never hold more than two things in your head. You did exactly that at the top of this page.
You never give anything a mark, and you never rank the whole list. You answer small questions, and the answer is what those questions add up to.
Two people, two answers
The obvious way to do this with somebody else is to sit together and answer out loud. It works, and it is fast. It also has a problem: when two people answer together, one of them just agrees with the other. You end up with one person’s evening and one person being polite.
The better way is for each of you to answer the same eight options on your own. Save the list, send it to them, and their pick comes back to you. They never see your answer, so it cannot steer theirs. That needs a free account, because the list has to be saved before it can be sent. They need nothing.
Then one of two things is true. Either you picked the same thing, and the evening is decided. Or you picked differently - and now you know exactly what you disagree about, which is a much smaller conversation than “what do you want to watch?”
Then go and find the title
PickChill stops here, and it stops here on purpose. It does not know what is on your streaming service tonight.
Take the mood you both picked and search for it in the app you already use. “Funny, and under 100 minutes” is a search you can actually run. “What should we watch?” is not.
What it is good for, and what it is not
Good for: two people who have been scrolling for twenty minutes. The six films you have both been meaning to watch and never start. Any evening where the problem is agreeing, not finding.
Not for: finding something to watch. PickChill holds no film data at all. No catalogue, no ratings, no idea what is on any streaming service, and it will never suggest a title. You bring the options; it only helps you pick between them.
That is also the point. Every answer is yours. Nothing is scored, nothing is judged, and the app has no opinion about how you spend your evening.
Questions
›Does it know what is on Netflix?
No. PickChill holds no film data at all - no catalogue, no ratings, and no connection to any streaming service. It compares the options you give it, and nothing else.
›Why moods instead of film titles?
Two reasons. A list of titles only works if everybody answering has heard of all of them. And the real disagreement is usually about the kind of evening, not about a particular film - so moods are both easier to answer and closer to the actual question.
›Can I put real films in?
Yes, in the app, up to 32 options. It works best on a short list you have both already heard of, like the films you keep meaning to watch. The example on this page is fixed, so it cannot take new options.
›Can we both answer?
Yes. Save the list and send it to the other person. They run it on their own and their pick comes back to you with their name on it. It needs a free account for you, and nothing for them.
›What if the answer is not what either of us wanted?
It can happen: two strong options can meet early, and one of them goes out. Run it again - it is only seven questions - or put the whole list in order instead, which gives you every option ranked rather than one winner.