- Max added more than 120 new features to its app in 2024
- A WBD survey indicates an increase in design, stability, and personalization
- The service has been rolled out to 73 new countries in the last nine months
Max has been busy making a lot of updates to its app in the last year as part of its global expansion to more countries, but not every new feature is a welcome one.
Of the 120 new features that were added to the Max app in 2024, most are aimed at improving the content discovery journey to finding the best Max movies and best Max shows, but there have also been some less favorable ad-related updates.
These include ads that let you shop for products related to the content you’re watching by clicking on a QR code, sponsored content recommendations, and commercials that target ‘moments’ (not to be confused with Netflix’s ‘moments’ feature that makes sharing content on social easier).
It’s an area that many of the best streaming services are increasingly doubling down on as they look for more ways to generate lost revenue from unsuccessful movies and shows. Indeed, Prime Video has also been adding a lot of the same ad features over the past year, making it slowly fill up with even more ads.
Aside from the ad onslaught, Warner Bros. Discovery has been making other changes to the Max app, including enhancements like an improved navigation design on the homepage to make your streaming life easier.
This update moved the navigation tools normally found at the top of a title to the left-side utility menu, making it much simpler to find these options (see the difference this made in the image below).
Global subscribers have also been treated to more ways to find content in the app, even while in the middle of streaming. This feature lets you browse similar titles while watching a movie or show by clicking a drop-down arrow to access the recommendation list.
Like Netflix, Max has also added similar functionality to recommend more movies and shows to watch after you’ve finished streaming a title. This means that after 25 seconds, if you haven’t selected something else, a related genre title will automatically start playing.
Another Netflix feature that Max has added is that titles on the homepage will automatically begin playing the trailer with audio while browsing. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but find this distracting while browsing for content and would rather that the audio be muted while the video plays. At least, this feature has only been rolled out to the US for now.
Other US-only features that have been added include the ability to watch five of HBO’s linear channels through the app. These include HBO, HBO 2, HBO Signature, HBO Comedy, and HBO Zone.
And, of course, we can’t forget the new multiview feature for 2025’s NASCAR Cup Series that puts you in the driver’s seat that was added to US subscribers’ apps earlier this year. It’s a great sports feature we’re seeing being added to many streamers, such as the Apple TV app and YouTube.
These are just a small portion of the tech updates that Max’s streaming app has added since September 2024, but they highlight a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that the service is doing as it looks to expand into more regions.
Max has been rolled out to 73 new countries in the space of nine months and will soon launch on Aussie shores on March 31, just in time for HBO’s The Last of Us season 2, which premieres on April 13. However, for those of us in the UK, we’ll have to patiently wait a bit longer until we can access all of these great features in the Max (most likely early 2026, going by reports). In the meantime, the best place to stream HBO content in the US is on Sky or Now.
