Individual profiles rolling out on Netflix, up to five profiles per account

It’s been a while, but it’s finally here – at long last, Netflix has begun rolling out individual profile support this morning. The company initially announced the feature back when the summer was young and the days were at their longest in June, and now almost two months later it’s finally here. Netflix claims that all regions will begin seeing individual profile support starting today, but not every user will have access to the feature just yet; it could take up to a couple weeks for individual profiles to hit your Netflix account as the company aims to roll the feature out slowly to their entire subscriber base.

All that waiting will pay off no matter where you are, however – not only is individual profiles working on their web interface, but Netflix says that most platforms and devices should already support the feature and be ready whenever your account is ready. There are a couple of exceptions however – unfortunately, the Netflix app on both the Nintendo Wii and Android are unable to take advantage of the new functionality just yet. Netflix promises that they’ll have a software update ready sometime this fall to bring users of those the latest and greatest Netflix experience, but until then there are plenty of other options for you to take advantage of. AppleTV, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and iOS are all confirmed go’s as of today.

Netflix subscribers can create up to five unique profiles per account, each with their own list of recommendations, viewing history, instant queue, associated Facebook account, avatar, ratings, and more. Unfortunately there’s no way to protect individual profiles in an account – profiles are unable to be password protected, meaning anyone who has access to the Netflix account will be able to log into any associated profile, potentially skewing your ratings and recommendations and such. Parental controls are in however, which should make parents totally comfortable with giving their little ones a profile all of their own with the full scope of the usual limitations such an account would be imposed with.

So fellow Netflix subscribers, it’s time to go and open up a new tab and check to see if your account has already been graced with individual profiles. Mine unfortunately has yet to be upgraded, but I’ll definitely be eagerly checking for the next couple of days and weeks; this is a feature I suspect many of us have been waiting a long, long time for. If you’re lucky enough to already have access to the new feature, be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below. And for those like me who haven’t gotten it just yet, Netflix has uploaded a little video on YouTube outlining the new feature, which you can see embedded below.