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HBO Max Has A Great Netflix Function Disney+ Doesn’t
WarnerMedia's long-awaited streaming service HBO Max has finally launched, and it's already beating Disney+ by bringing a useful Netflix function along with it. The new HBO offering has been highly-anticipated, with its promise to reintroduce streamers to the entirety of Friends as well as everything offered by the existing HBO platform. But the service hasn't arrived without its share of problems, such as not currently being available on Roku or Amazon Fire TV streaming devices. HBO Max also launched with several movies and TV shows missing from its expected day-one lineup. Such teething problems are becoming the norm for new streaming services, with Disney+ experiencing everything from login issues to shows being presented in the wrong order when it released in 2019.
Early setbacks aside, HBO Max remains a tempting offer for viewers looking for a wide-range of content to binge. The service features everything available on HBO, alongside content from a slew of WarnerMedia brands including DC and Cartoon Network. Meanwhile Disney+ has given audiences a way to quickly get their Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney fix in one easy-to-access package. And with the original series The Mandalorian proving a hit, Disney's streaming offering certainly has enough to entice viewers despite the issues that have cropped up since the platform's launch.
But HBO Max may have Disney+ beat when it comes to one useful function it borrows from Netflix. In the library interface, both HBO and Disney's streaming platforms provide viewers with a progress bar below the thumbnail for each show and movie. It acts as a quick indication of how much of a given episode or movie the user has watched before they actually click the 'play' button. But HBO Max goes a step further by keeping that bar in place even when a show has been watched, allowing users to easily see what content they've already seen. It's a small but useful feature that Netflix has long-used and which Disney+ seems to have foregone - despite including the blue progress bar for any content that has been partially viewed.
The function itself is another small win for HBO Max, which is already outdoing many of its competitors with its comprehensive library of content and the promise of numerous "Max Originals" in the future. That's alongside the highly-anticipated Justice League Snyder Cut, and the Friends reunion special. Still, Disney+ is currently around half the price of HBO Max, offering its relatively limited library of content for just $6.99 a month while WarnerMedia's alternative sits at a whopping $14.99. Even if HBO Max can't justify its comparatively higher price with its massive library of content just yet, the service promises to deliver a range of exciting shows and movies in the months to come.
And while Disney is struggling with its own issues, the company has managed to attract 50 million Disney+ subscribers already, and recently proved it's willing to listen to user feedback and adapt. Following a backlash over the changing of The Simpsons' original aspect ratio for its Disney+ debut, Disney introduced a feature that allowed viewers to switch between the new 16:9 ratio and the original 4:3 format. With that in mind, it's likely an easy fix for the company to update the blue progress bar to remain in place after a show or movie has been watched, and would prove yet again that it's willing to adapt to customer feedback. And while the progress bar issue may seem like a small one, consumers are faced with an increasingly overwhelming amount of streaming options and will undoubtedly be looking for the most stress-free streaming experience they can get.
