These days, there’s a pretty good chance whatever movie or TV show you’re looking for is available for streaming — the question is, which streaming app is it actually on? Google is attempting to make your Friday night process of finding something to watch a little easier with an upgrade to search in the Play Store.
Google is rolling out a change to how search results function in the Play Store. Once this change is live, searching for a specific TV show or movie returns a “Where to watch” card for that specific property, detailing the apps where you can find that particular listing. In the example shared in its announcement post, searching for The Last of Us brings up results for HBO Max, YouTube TV, and Prime Video, along with quick install options if you don’t have the app already available on your device.
Play Store search results currently.
Play Store search results after this change.
It’s a welcome change for a platform that has felt a little empty since movies and shows were given their own application outside of the Play Store. It also works as a good replacement for apps like JustWatch, which functions both on its own and as a subscriber-only perk within Letterboxd. This doesn’t seem quite as powerful as those options, since there’s no way to simply filter by platforms you’re already subscribed to, but if you’re just looking for a master list of every way to potentially stream a particular title — rather than having to buy it — this seems like a decent method.
The only other catch with a platform like this is remembering that certain platforms may list a title as streaming when, in fact, it requires additional add-ons or purchases to support your plan. The Last of Us, for example, is streaming actively on HBO Max, but the other two options here either require subscriptions to HBO proper — in the case of YouTube TV — or an add-on as a channel purchase, in the case of Prime Video. If you’ve ever seen a title streaming on Hulu through Google’s search results only to find it’s actually only available through Hulu + Live TV, you’ll be familiar with this catch.
Still, this is a great add-on for the Play Store, and makes knowing the actual app you’re searching for just a little bit easier. This change should be rolling out to users soon, though I have yet to see it on my personal Pixel 10.
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