Leave a Review BritBox
What have they done to the Britbox app?
Here I am on a ginormous 12.9 inch iPad pro and suddenly the interface absolutely INSISTS on turning sideways like it thinks I'm on an itty bitty iPhone screen, make it nearly impossible to use since, of course, my big TV-like iPad screen is resting compfortably in its keypad case, and now I have to search for my programs by turning my head sideways?!
Oh thank goodness. Doctor Who is still there and plays in landscape once you FIND it, although the nicely organized front page of the library is all gone and it seems like my watchlist has lost nearly everything too.
Please, please please fix the iPad app. Some of us old people who like older British programs cannot SEE teeny tiny iPhone screens. Tablets are iPhones for the vision impaired, ok? :)Show lessSepdet
3 Years into the App and still...
I am new to Britbox and while I enjoy the programming, all versions of the app need work. Has the app ever had the ability to turn off auto play. It would appear that at least since Nov 2019 people have requested this. Developers need to give people the option to decide how to watch the programs. After all, we are paying for the service. There are far too many programs that continue the show well into the 15 seconds and even beyond the credits. Older folks like myself have difficulty seeing the smaller window and cannot resize it in time to catch what we missed. Fix this problem already and stop taking your customers for granted. It’s not as though you were forcing a commercial for us to see. Stop shrinking the end of the shows. Other services shrink the auto play warning. Other still simply overlay the warning. Why are you making us miss the ending or go blind trying to see it? I thought Brits had their brit together! Fix this already.Show lessYankeeTeaLover
Issues with app on mobile devices
This streaming service works pretty well on my Apple TV and once it gets going on the iPhone or iPad, it’s fine. But it’s aggravating to get it going, especially on the iPad (which admittedly is six years old). Firstly I have it in landscape mode but as it opens it flips to portrait and won’t actually flip back till the episode starts playing. It gives the option to continue watching what you’ve been viewing, but when you tap it (at least with tv episodes) it does a mad scroll up and down the whole season, and you have to find and tap the episode again. Then it takes forever to load, and four out of five times I got HLS streaming error. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, rebooting the iPad and just trying over and over. Once it does work, it’s great, but I’ve just spent 20 minutes trying to get it to start. I have Binge and Netflix too and both are much easier to operate across devices. Fix the app issues and my rating will go up to five stars. I got this for Doctor Who and I’ll keep it because I can watch classic Who episodes, but it’s aggravating when it doesn’t work much of the time. Also the streaming error appeared as I was binge watching after a few hours so it’s clearly a major issue.Show lessSaffy66
App completely broken; use browser instead
UPDATE: Now the app only shows an error message: “Something appears to have gone wrong”. I can’t make it go away. Can’t use the app at all.
I have had no trouble accessing and streaming through the website on my phone, but this app is a user experience nightmare. All the negative reviews are correct: this is a horrible app. The streaming service is great, but the app needs a LOT of work. A couple examples of user experience frustrations: I can’t pause the show and also remove the play/pause controls in order to look closely at something on screen, and the search function doesn’t bring up shows that it should (search for QI or Quite Interesting and nothing comes up- you must scroll through all the comedy shows to find it).Show lessJakethecellist
App has issues
I was able to watch one episode of a show. Then the app seemed to partially freeze. My connection to chromecast was no longer recognised so I was unable to cast a new episode. Completely closing the app did not change this. I had to wait for the connection to timeout.
Additionally, it did not appear that the next episode was going to auto-play, an it seemed that I would need to search for the show again to start the next episode. Not a good user experience.
Also, why is there not the ability to have multiple profiles so that different watchers within an account don’t interfere with each other’s watching preferences?Show less***...Kris...***
Dec 2020 update is a travesty. Fix the forced orientation!!
The new update that forces a different orientation while scrolling through content and then when viewing, is a crime against users and experience design. What hare brained logic determined that people want to turn their devices around multiple times while watching something?? Did the designers even consider how people use a device such as this. With a stand, or perched somewhere while they’re working. The reorientation is inexplicable with no benefit and only friction. The previous version of this app was functional, if not the best, but now it’s literally painful to use. If you aren’t going to make it better then maybe leave it alone??
Not just this bizarre reorientation issue, the new interface freezes and has a lot of experience errors. Fix or revert back to the previous version of expect to lose me as a subscriber.Show lessMomoaurusRex
Love my BritBox Fix...Please Improve
Before this newest update, I’d rate my two-year BritBox membership a 10-star streaming option for it’s variety, quality, and frequent additions of vintage and current programming. I’ve used my membership access to review various shows for an online magazine. However, this Nov. 2020 update has many issues! I was very disappointed that my “entertainment” iPad (10.3.3) no longer plays the video, even though it states it works on IOS 10.0.0 and above; I hear the audio, but see nothing. I can access programming on my “business” iPad, but the full-screen is still not a real “full” screen, and watching on my iPhone is, of course, inherently small. Also the app is aligned with portrait for browsing and landscape for viewing making it just slightly annoying. Lastly, the video end before the ending credits finish...maybe it’s an OCD thing, but I like for the program to be complete, ending credits and all. I do like the addition of the 10-second forward or rewind. I’m not in anyway saying “so long,” I greatly enjoy my daily “Brit Fix” way too much and just hopes these and other issues will be addressed and corrected...soon. If and when they do, I’ll revise my review!Show lessKat Costa
Developer Response
Hi, Thank you for your feedback, could you please upgrade your BritBox app version? you'll find it greatly improved. Thank you.Why did you fix something not broken?!
I have had Britbox for years now. I loved it. It was my ‘go-to’ app to watch. I’ve watched shows over and over, just because I love Poirot, Midsommer Murder, Miss Marple, etc. I’ve recommended this app to all my friends and acquaintances. But, with the new update I HATE It! Right away the screen switches the wrong way. When I went to play a video it did switch back to landscape view, but almost like letterbox view, but WORSE. The sides are blank, top and bottom are blank....the screen only takes up about 2/3 of my iPad...like watching on a phone,..and I HATE watching tv on a phone. Please, please, please switch it back. I would hate to lose all my favorite shows, but I will NOT continue paying for something that pains me to watch now. Why did you take something beautiful and ruin it?!Show lessnoir addict
This “update” is pure rubbish! Not worth having the app for iPad any longer!
I was literally in the middle of watching a show on the old (and FAR superior) app, when play was interrupted and I was told I had to update the app. I obliged the request and upon opening the newly updated app, the entire formatting has changed....for the worse! 1. Now the landing page is ONLY vertically oriented, so if your lying in bed watching you iPad, the vertical orientation is a pain and not worth adapting to. 2. Then, IF you can tolerate the stupid landing page and subsequent navigation to find the video you want to watch, the playback orientation, now able to go horizontal, only offers a window within a window sort of video. In other words, it no longer takes advantage of the full horizontal, wide screen playback and feels more like I’m watching on a phone or worse yet, like I’m watching on an old cathode ray tv...via an iPad! NO other streaming apps have such ridiculous interface and I totally regret the lure to and eventual capitulation to update the app. Unless it’s redone like it originally was and per the standards of all streaming apps for iPad, I’m deleting the app and I’ll just have to watch via telly for the foreseeable future. Your developers just set back this app by about 10 years!Show lessInsight2020
Developer Response
We're working on an update to use the app completely in landscape, which we hope to release soon. In the meantime, as long as you open your app and browse in portrait mode, all videos will automatically open in full-screen landscape with no cut-off sections. We're sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.Content is amazing, app is infuriating
For the record, the content is worth every penny of my subscription so I do wholeheartedly recommend it, but the app is SO ANNOYING to use.
Small things really but they add up to a frustrating user experience. For example:
- My shows don’t sync when I move from one device to another (I use iPhone and Samsung TV). So I can’t pick up where I left off.
- Even within the iPhone app, shows I’m in the middle of watching sometimes don’t show up in my “continue watching” list so I have to search the database for the show, scroll to the episode and find my spot again - I only stepped away to use the bathroom!
- If I want to delete any shows that do appear on my “keep watching” list I can only do it on my phone. And when I do it doesn’t sync with my Samsung TV app - there’s no way to do it on there so I’m stuck with a long list of shows I don’t care to watch any more.
- The search and back functions are super clunky.
In short the interface is not designed user-first. All of that said, I do stand by the fact that the content is great. I’m British and live in the states and use the app every day and despite the stone age interface I do love it.
Sort the apps out and this would be a 5* review.Show lessemilyjusername
