Amazon is giving Prime Video its biggest redesign in years

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Prime Video has never been the most user-friendly app. Its user experience is not as polished as those of its competitors. The X-Ray feature, which shows cast information whenever content is paused, is one of the good aspects of what is there. Prime Video hasn't received a major change in a long time.

Today is the last day that that will remain the case. The new Prime Video experience for connected living room devices will be rolled out over the next couple weeks. The experience has been designed to make it easier for customers. It is something that looks a lot like the streaming service. Maybe that is for the better.

Images: Amazon / Netflix, GIF: Chris Welch / The Verge

The main navigation of Prime Video has been moved to the left side of the screen. Search, Home, Store, Live TV, Free, and my stuff are the main areas. There are sections for movies, TV shows, and sports in the home section. The store has similar sub-menus for Prime channels.

There is now a Top 10 list on the home screen so you can easily reference what is popular and the new Prime Video is much clearer about what entertainment is included with your Prime subscription. Content that requires a rental or purchase will have a gold shopping bag icon, while shows and movies will have a blue checkmark. It is cleaner than adding a Badge to every piece of TV show or movie artwork that was done before, but you will have to look into listings to see what is happening.

Image: Amazon

Image: Amazon

Many of the carousels have the same landscape as before. Prime Video has added portrait, poster-style art that expands into a video preview when you hover over a selection. If you've seen it elsewhere, stop me.

Prime Video's redesign took 18 months. Ben Smith is the VP of product for Prime Video and Prime Studios at Amazon. Smith is the same person who was in charge of the redesign of Hulu. The user interface was tried to be reinvented and pushed too far. The company spent a lot of time reining in some of the changes after customers voiced their complaints.

Prime Video's redesign is deliberate, calculated, and far less audacious than the ones shown. People tend to take to the changes very quickly, according to user research done by Amazon. It is not surprising that all of these apps are similar.

Image: Amazon

Image: Amazon

Some of the goals were to better highlight Prime Video's perks. The Live TV hub gives a guide that shows linear programming from channels like AMC Plus and Paramount Plus, as well as live sporting events and ad-supported content that is free for everyone. The interface is already available on the web but will likely be used a lot more widely now that it is in the Prime Video app. During a recent press preview, the product director said that they heard the phrase, "WOW, I didn't know Prime Video had live TV."

Prime Video has a new look and layout, but popular features like multi- user profiles, X-Ray, andAlexa are still present. Just as before, you will see a lot of promoted content and Amazon is still trying to push subscriptions for third party content onto customers.

Prime Video presents TV seasons in odd ways and can sometimes separate 4K and HD versions of the same movie. Due to the fact that Amazon still sells a lot of this content, some of these organization choices are head-scratching.

Image: Amazon

In the coming months, the new Prime Video design will be available on the web and mobile devices. Not all hardware can run the redesign. The third- generation Apple TV won't be updated. If devices don't get the new version, they'll stick with what they have currently and continue to give access to Prime Video into the future.

The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power and NFL Thursday Night Football are two shows that will test the new Prime experience. The new design will continue to be improved based on feedback from customers.