Roku’s free update that makes it easier to find new shows and movies is coming to more countries
Roku has announced that a new software update, including a What to Watch feature, will be coming to compatible streaming players and TVs in the coming weeks and months.
The update, which is already available in the US, aims to make it easier and more organized for Roku users to browse and discover new things to watch, using three new options under the ‘What to Watch’ heading ‘; What you can watch, continue watching and save list.
Speaking about Roku streaming devices like the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and compatible Roku TVs from brands like Sharp, JVC, TCL and more, Roku’s Sally Nelson, director of UK product growth, says: “By personalizing the way our customers connect to the content they love and by offering more ways to discover new content, our users have easy access to entertainment.”
But how does What to watch work? By using a viewer’s viewing data on a Roku device, What to Watch can tailor recommendations to the user based on their viewing habits, whether that’s genre type, streaming service, and so on. For example, if you watch some Nordic crime dramas on Netflix, What to Watch will recommend other Nordic crime dramas on Netflix.
Compared to other recommendations from other smart TV platforms on top TVs – such as webOS, Tizen, Fire TV and Google TV – the Roku update will further fine-tune the recommendations only suggest TV shows and movies on platforms you subscribe to. So, for example, if you don’t have Prime Video, Roku What to Watch won’t recommend anything from Prime Video. It’s a kind of indictment of smart TV software that this sounds like a breath of fresh air.
What to Watch not only makes recommendations by streaming service, but also by genre. If it sees that you’re watching TV shows that are finance-based, it will give you a row of recommended TV shows and movies under a banner heading called “Business & Finance,” but this is just one (somewhat boring) example.
The other features, Continue Watching and Save List, aim to centralize all the TV shows and movies that users have started watching or have been tagged for watching later in one location, meaning users can quickly get in and out of the shows can jump to the one they want to watch instead of having to navigate through different apps each time.
Here for simplicity
Roku has always strived to make the user experience as simple and easy to navigate as possible, with recent updates including a bigger and better Smart TV menu. One of the negatives we’ve found in the past when looking at some of the best smart TV platforms is that there can often be a feeling at lots of recommendations, and they can feel a bit random.
If Roku wants to eliminate this problem and tailor the user experience to a more streamlined and personalized approach, we’re all for it. With thousands of movies and TV shows on hundreds of streaming services and channels, it can be difficult to choose what to watch, so any help is appreciated. Will the What to Watch function be a success in practice? Only time will tell, but we’re looking forward to finding out.