Google Play Movies & TV 12+

For a Google product, this app is astonishing awful. I’ve used more of it recently for tv shows I love that have left Netflix and other streaming platforms. Here are the problem areas: 1) you can purchase all seasons of a series (1-10) but the interface doesn’t acknowledge you bought all of them and doesn’t separate them out. So you have to search hundreds of episodes in a single line and the same seasons you purchased that are broken out by season ask you to purchase them again to view them in that menu. It’s absurd. 2) there is no “return to view” or “continue watching” orientation in the UI except the one episode you were in anchored at the top of the experience. Once you complete that episode, you have to go back to the menu and find where you were and play the next episode. 3) the experience claims to allow “binge watching” but most shows do not auto play the next episode even when the feature is turned on. After each episode you have to go find your place and play the next which makes it even harder when 1) and 2) above are so poor. Honestly guys, put your celebrated “design sprints” in action and get the right folks from product, ux and design in a room and fix this shitshow. And maybe look at how seasons are sold and appear in the UI vs. buying each individual episode. Not rocket science here

I received a gift card for Google play and was excited to finally use it to purchase a movie! I am very disappointed however that I have been unable to watch the movie that I purchased. I have tried to watch it several ways, through the app, on my Apple TV, through my headphones, and not a single way works! On the screen sometimes I can hear the sound but I cannot see the picture and other times I see the picture with no sound. I can’t believe that I can’t even plug-in Bluetooth earphones because if you do it will not play. I have tried several times to play the movie but to no avail. I am really frustrated! I am very surprised at a product like this from Google. I sure hope that this app gets fixed. Google has such good products it doesn’t make sense to have a product like this if it is not good and brings down your brand. It’s sad to say but one negative can cancel out so many positives. That just seems the nature of the human condition. With that being said I like your other products...but not this one. Please fix it. I’d like to watch my movie and I am nervous to purchase any more movies with my gift card!

I’m boggled by the user interface here. Upset that Friends was leaving Netflix, I bought the entire series for only $50 through Google Play. Great deal! However, the player is crap. First of all, it’s not separated by season. If I want to watch something later in the series, I have to scroll through allllll the episodes before it. It’s also not super obvious where you left off. The episode titles also do not fit on the tiles, not even close. So basically the only info you get is “Season 4 episode 2...The One...” (“The One” is how all the episode titles start). If you leave it on binge watching mode, the next episode starts before the current one is over (seriously! How is this an issue in this day and age?). If you turn binge watch mode off, then once an episode ends, it goes back to the menu with all the episodes, but not scrolled to the episode you just watched or anywhere near there. There is a “Last Watched” indicator on the last watched episode but you have to be right on top of the episode tile to see it. Lastly, there is no option to go back 10-15 seconds like with most other streaming services. Everything about this UI is so so so bad.