HBOMax and Disney+ NEED to improve their apps if they want to compete with Netflix.

This is a bit of rant. I have a 2020 model Roku TV and the Disney+ app just failed to load on multiple attemps, and HBOMax is so slow to load and clunky to use that I don't watch anything on the app unless I absolutely have to.

And granted, the Disney+ app is generally faster and more stable, but why does it keep asking if I want to resume the previous episode of WandaVision even if I've already finished watching it and am 30 seconds into the credits? Shouldn't that be enough for the app to register that this episode is "completed" and to show me the newest episode, instead? And why when I'm trying to find the newest episode, do I need to scroll to the end of the episode list? Why not list them in reverse chronoligical order so the newest episode is easiest to find? Or have a button up top to "play next episode"?

HBOMax, on the other hand, is a disaster. It seems to load the "featured" row and "continue playing" row separately, so even after the app opens, I still need to wait around 10-20 seconds for the app to become usable. Is this the end of the world? No. I have food on my plate and a roof overhead and this is the definition of a first-world problem. But it DOES make the app unpleasant to use.

I know media companies aren't used to acting like tech companies, but that's what their biggest competitor, Netflix, excels at - technology. I have never, in YEARS of using Netflix on every device imaginable, had a problem with the app or the interface. It. Just. Works.

And my hope is, as these competitors mature, that they invest in their technology, back end, and front end user experiences similarly.

Submitted February 27, 2021 at 08:45AM by arashtp https://ift.tt/3dURMXx