Snippet: Inside HBO Max’s Scramble to Fix Its Glitchy App ☇

Josef Adalian for Vulture:

There is hope ahead, both for consumers and for the product-support staffers forced to answer all those angry tweets from frustrated users. Instead of simply rushing to plug holes in the existing infrastructure, HBO Max is getting ready to roll out a completely new app, one built from the ground up to match the needs of the current service. While it hasn’t been publicly announced yet, we’re going to replace every single connected TV app in the next four or five months, the WarnerMedia exec tells me. Woebegone Roku users will be first in line to get the new Max app along with PlayStation customers. Apple TV customers will likely have to wait until the end of the year, while an overhaul of the mobile and web-based apps is penciled in for early 2022.

I’d say that for my TV viewing, it’s about 15% Apple TV+ (probably rising a bit), 15% Netflix, 20% Paramount+, 30% HBO Max, and then the remaining 20% being “other” (random apps or streams). It’s mostly been related to content or catching up on series I may have not watched previously, as well as the theatrical releases on HBO Max. When the app was broken earlier this summer, it was frustrating, so this is a fascinating read to hear what went wrong and how WarnerMedia wants to fix it.