Streaming video apps all look the identical now

Earlier this week, Amazon introduced a serious redesign of Prime Video, and the overwhelming response was “lastly.” Prime Video had grow to be a relic frozen in time, with an unsightly, laggy interface that appeared caught in 2010. Amazon’s streaming opponents, in the meantime, have routinely switched up and refined the person expertise.

And it looks like Prime Video’s designers seen. As a result of one other factor that caught out concerning the app’s makeover is simply how intently Amazon’s video service now resembles Netflix. Column of navigation icons on the left aspect? Test. Prime 10 listing with huge numbers? Yep, it’s there on the house display. And Prime Video has even added “tremendous carousels” of poster-style paintings that increase to panorama and begin auto-playing a trailer whenever you hover over them — similar to Netflix.

Primarily based on the feedback on our story and feedback I’ve seen throughout Twitter, Reddit (1, 2, 3), and elsewhere, individuals don’t appear to thoughts the similarities. This interface has progressively grow to be the de facto normal throughout Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and now Prime Video. And consistency goes a good distance right here; we’re basically utilizing all of those companies to achieve the leisure on every one, and having a samey interface between them ought to make doing so simpler for everybody.

It does pose the chance of confusion, although. You may end up mindlessly scrolling by way of HBO Max or Paramount Plus whenever you’re looking for the brand new Lord of The Rings collection on Prime Video.

When firms have tried to flip the desk and reinvent the streaming app person expertise, it usually hasn’t gone properly. Just a few years in the past, Hulu launched a totally overhauled design that was lambasted for prioritizing fashion over usability; as an alternative of exhibiting you as a lot content material as doable, it highlighted one or two objects at a time with full-screen paintings and outsized, thin-weight fonts.

Within the months and years that adopted, Hulu dialed again and reversed plenty of the extra drastic modifications and finally settled on one thing extra acquainted. It hasn’t totally given in and adopted left-side navigation like everybody else fairly but, however all the principle sections are comparable.

Picture: Hulu

So we’ve clearly settled on the “proper manner” to do UX for video streaming apps. However that doesn’t imply all of the complications are solved. In Prime Video’s case, Amazon nonetheless lists seasons of TV reveals individually. It is a main annoyance for some customers, I’ve discovered, and it’s one which hasn’t modified or improved with the redesign. However the firm is at the least working to cease displaying a number of variations of the identical film based mostly on video high quality. For the reason that starting of this yr, Amazon has resolved the 4K / HD break up for greater than half of the Prime Video catalog and is at the moment making its manner by way of the remaining.

Lots of people would additionally love an choice to completely filter what’s proven in all these content material carousels to all the pieces included with their Prime subscription — and nothing else. However that’s not going to assist Amazon’s backside line with reference to subscriptions and leases / purchases, so don’t depend on it. Amazon insists it’ll collect buyer suggestions and proceed evolving the revamped Prime Video. You may’t name it unique, however at the least it’s inherently extra usable than earlier than.