Tag: Where Can I Watch (Page 1 of 2)

Where Can I Watch? 1.4.0 is out, and it’s one of the bigger releases since launch. Two ideas drove most of the work: making Today its own top-level tab, and giving Episode Detail a consistent home in every place in the app where you might tap into an episode.

When 1.3.0 shipped, the plan I wrote for 1.4.0 was a detail-page overhaul:

• content rating badges,
• runtime,
• on-your-services callouts,
• and person search.

The more I continued to use the app, the more it was clear the foundation for those enhancements wasn’t quite in place yet:

• Episode Detail only opened from one corner of the app,
• Today was still a pinned section inside Watchlist,
• and the streaming service name, the whole point of the app, was missing from a few places a user would most want it.

1.4.0 puts those foundations in place. The detail-page enhancements will be in 1.5.0, built on top of everything in this release.

Where Can I Watch? 1.3.0 is out, and this one is less about new features and more about making controls that have been in the app since launch easier to find and easier to trust.

When 1.2.0 shipped, I wrote that 1.3.0 was going to be a detail-page overhaul. But the more I used the app, the more I noticed another set of issues specifically around the filtering controls in the Services tab. They’ve been there since 1.0.0, but they’re buried far too low beneath the list of streaming service providers. So I shifted gears. The detail-page work moved to 1.4.0, and 1.3.0 became a clarity pass on the filtering experience across Search and Trending.

Where Can I Watch? started off as an app with a single purpose: tell me what service is streaming a show or movie. But the more I used the app (and the more a few users contacted me), the more it made sense to also track all of the shows and movies that are being watched. And with shows, there are obviously multiple episodes and, for most, multiple seasons.

So in the latest version, in addition to fixing a few things, I added per-season episode tracking. 1.2.0 has shaped up to be the biggest feature release since the initial launch of the app.

A couple of weeks ago, I released Where Can I Watch? launched on the App Store, and I recently shipped the first update. Version 1.1.0 includes four new features and six bug fixes most of which came directly from things that either bugged me while using the app every day or feedback from those using it.

That’s one of the nice things about building something you actually use. The feedback loop is short. Something feels off, you fix it. Something’s missing, you add it.

Here’s what changed.

At any given time, I’ve got a number of active streaming services (some of which I rotate through during the year). Between the shows Meghan and I like to watch and the shows the kids like to watch, I don’t always know where to find what show or movie any of us are trying to find.

On top of that, this is an all too common song and dance: Someone recommends a show, I open Netflix, it’s not there. Try Hulu. Not there either. Check Disney+. Nope. It’s at a point now where I’ll drop the title in a note and maybe I’ll remember to look it up later. Or maybe not.

This happens enough so I built something to fix it. First, as a web app (which I’ve talked about), and now as an actual iOS app.