A new version of the HBO Max application is now rolling out to Apple TV users, and it promises some major improvements. As reported by Variety, this update will roll out over the next two weeks. WarnerMedia says that the app has been “rebuilt on its next-generation platform,” promising improved stability, new features, and faster performance.
HBO Max for Apple TV gets rebuilt
Visually, the new version of the HBO Max application for Apple TV isn’t all that different, but there are some small changes. There’s a new scrollable “hero banner” at the top (for better or for worse), as well as the ability to skip credits and jump directly to the next episode in a series.
One of the more notable changes is the the addition of a fully-capable “My Stuff” feature. This allows users to have full control over their “My List” and “Continue Watching” queues, with support for editing and sorting content.
On the back-end, the HBO Max app for Apple TV has been rebuilt using technology from You.i, a cross-platform streaming app development company that WarnerMedia acquired in December 2020. The company had switched to this back-end technology on other platforms – Roku and Android devices – already, and now it’s making the same transition on Apple TV.
The back-end changes should mean that the HBO Max application for Apple TV is far more stable and reliable than the previous version of the app. In fact, the previous version of the HBO Max app for Apple TV was still using the code base from the HBO Go and HBO Now apps. This decision allowed HBO Max to come to market faster, but it has also meant that app included quite a bit of baggage.
In an interview with The Streamable, HBO Max’s EVP for Global Product Management Sarah Lyons explained that the company has focused heavily on making the HBO Max experience feel as native as possible for Apple users
“The biggest thing we’re conscious of is Apple users are very used to that ecosystem and how that ecosystem behaves. The way that they scrub on the remote is really important to them, and candidly, we had not had some good scrubbing experiences in the past … So that’s one we were very conscious of trying to make sure that the scrubbing and swiping of the remote works well.
We’re trying to respect the Apple community and how they’re used to engaging, which is a little different than other platforms. So we’ve tried to take a tailored approach to each platform and address the things that matter to those users.
Looking to the future, WarnerMedia is teasing that the HBO Max app for Apple TV will soon feature “more dynamic interface animations,” thanks to the processing power of the Apple TV and Apple TV 4K.
In the meantime, the new version of the HBO Max app will roll out slowly over the next two weeks. If you receive it on your Apple TV, let us know what you think of it down in the comments.
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