Amazon’s Prime Video app is getting an update, with changes to the user interface, a superior personalized content recommendation feature and simpler navigation.
With the update, Amazon insists it’s “bringing clarity and simplicity” back to the art of video streaming.
The first thing users will notice is that the Amazon Prime Video app has a fresh look, and it does appear to be much slicker with its new UI. At the top of the page, the key artwork of the feature movie or show has been given more room, and there are more prominent buttons for users to instantly play the content or find out more information about it. This is all within a rotating carousel that periodically switches to show more featured content and also the features and benefits users enjoy as part of their current subscription.
Staying with the UI, users will also notice that the navigation tools on the top and the left-hand side of the app are more streamlined than before. The search button has been relocated to the left side of the screen, and there’s also a new bookmark page for users to quickly access movies and shows they’ve previously flagged. On the top, there’s a new navigation bar that’s split into dedicated content types, including the home page, movies, TV shows, sports and live television.
The new navigation bar also has a button for users to explore any additional subscriptions they might have signed up for via Amazon Prime Video, including Paramount+, MGM+, MUBI and Discovery+. Another new feature in the update, is that users can quickly sign up for new subscriptions to these services from the Amazon Prime home page.
The app also brings more clarity to users about exactly what they’re getting via their subscription. Previously, it wasn’t always immediately clear to some users if the content they wanted to watch was included in their subscription. They had to click on it before seeing if it was available to rent or buy. Amazon is now making this much clearer, with every movie and show that’s not included in the user’s subscription featuring a prominent shopping bag icon which makes it more immediately apparent that they’ll have to pay extra for it. In addition, Amazon is also showing logos for content that requires additional subscriptions to watch. So a TV show that requires a Starz subscription will feature the Starz logo prominently, for example.
Because AI is all the rage these days, Amazon thoughtfully injects some more intelligence into the Prime Video app with AI models that help to enhance user’s personalized content recommendations. These can be found under a new “Made for You” tab within the movies and TV show pages. The suggested shows will be based on each user’s viewing history and what Amazon has identified as likely to interest them. Besides the personalized recommendations, there are also new categories such as “Top 10 Shows in the US” and “Trending Shows”.
The app also gets a dose of generative AI, which is used to simplify the synopsis of each TV show and movie, providing a kind of “at a glance” description of the content, making it easier for people to decide if they want to explore further.
Also, there are some aesthetic updates, such as smoother page transitions, new animations and zoom effects that help to make the app look and feel much slicker than before.
