To put it mildly the HBO Max smart TV apps were not reliable but WarnerMedia seems ready to make things right. Vulture was informed by a WarnerMedia executive that the HBO Max team will replace all of its smart TV apps within the next four to five months. The updated apps will be available to Roku and PlayStation owners first, then Apple TV users at the end of 2021. Mobile and web viewers will have to wait until the beginning of 2022.
There are many serious issues with the existing apps, including broken playback controls, forgotten settings, and slowness. Roku users have had to deal with more issues than others, including lockups and crashes that sometimes rendered the HBO Max app inaccessible.
According to reports, the problems stemmed from WarnerMedia's rush to launch HBO Max in May. While many competitors built their streaming apps from scratch in the past, the current HBO Max app uses a repurposed version that was originally designed for HBO Go and HBO Now. Although it was designed to handle high demand, it was not built to support an ever-growing global audience streaming more than Game of Thrones.
The new HBO Max app will have modern underpinnings, but also room for growth. According to the unnamed executive, while the new app will not look very different initially, it should offer a more sophisticated interface and new and improved features.
This could have a significant impact on HBO Max's future. With rivals such as Peacock and Paramount+ joining established players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the TV streaming market is becoming increasingly crowded. If you have a bad experience with HBO Max, regardless of how appealing the content, you might lose interest. This is especially true when WarnerMedia stops releasing new movies on the platform.
