# HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies — user reviews

> 50 indexed App Store user reviews of HBO Max by WarnerMedia Global Digital Services, LLC, rated 3.27/5 from 108,888 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hbo-max-stream-tv-and-movies/id971265422/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hbo-max-stream-tv-and-movies/id971265422.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 44,816 · 4★ 9,257 · 3★ 8,036 · 2★ 11,497 · 1★ 30,620

## What do users think of HBO Max?

Overall sentiment: negative

**Pros**

- 💎 Excellent content selection
- 🎬 High-quality original shows and movies
- 🔥 Competitive pricing compared to other services

**Cons**

- 🐛 Frequent app crashes and glitches
- 🕰️ Slow and unresponsive app performance
- 🔌 Unreliable offline viewing and downloads
- 🤯 Frustrating navigation and user experience
- 🔍 Lack of basic features (e.g. scrubbing, captions)

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Inability to play downloaded content offline
- Inconsistent download management and limits
- Frequent app crashes and freezes

**Most requested features**

- Improve offline viewing and downloads
- Enhance navigation and user interface
- Add more playback controls (scrubbing, captions)

## Newest reviews (12 of 50)

### 2/5 — Solid selection, but very glitchy at times

*2022-09-26, version 52.45.0*

App is great when it decides to do what it’s supposed to. I download a lot of shows because of lack of service in some areas so I can still watch stuff on the app. Well often times I open the app and it will say “no service try again”, which of course It’s right I don’t have service but the problem is it gets stuck on that screen and won’t let me get to my downloads. Sometimes opening the app in airplane mode helps and sometimes it doesn’t. Also have issues with some of my downloads just disappearing from my downloads list, often times even episodes of shows I just downloaded the night before. Naturally it’s frustrating to go to use the app and watch a show I downloaded the night prior only to find that it’s not in my download list. I’ve even had it where a show wasn’t in the list and then after several times of shutting down the app, restarting my phone, and then all of a sudden some of the stuff I downloaded will all of a sudden appear.  I constantly keep the app and my phone updated so I all I can gather is that the app is just very buggy. So like I’ve said the app is great when it decides to work. On a side note, not to be totally negative,when connected to wifi the app does seem to work as intended with no issues.

### 2/5 — Woe is the user who forgets how bad this app handles

*2022-09-14, version 52.40.0*

I recently purchased a subscription, ad-free, for hbo Max because I had one last year and I remembered all the great shows it had to offer, on top of realizing young justice was on hbo max which I had never seen but it is an amazing animated series. The first season handled fine honestly, not many issues that I could notice. But the second season is where it took a turn for the worst. The episodes would freeze on frames, not just buffering as the audio would keep going and upon rewinding it would freeze on the same frame and unfreeze at the same time no matter what. This was faulty app design. But no matter I said, I’ll download the episodes and they’ll play much better. Oh how naive and arrogant I was. You see, Hbo max will completely crash if you attempt to queue more than one episode for downloading at a time in too quickly of a succession. This means queuing up a season of the show for downloading is out of the question, as once the app crashes the downloads fail and you have to try again only to have it crash. Again. So woe be the user who remembers the glory days of hbo max but forgets the horrendous mistakes of its creators. TLDR: amazing catalogue, terrible app design

### 2/5 — Downloads

*2022-04-25, version 52.20.0*

If I download an episode or movie, it says it will expire in 29 days. If I don’t watch it in a couple days, I have to renew it. The issue is that renewing doesn’t work majority of the time. This is a pain because I download stuff so I can watch when I get to areas without service. I shouldn’t have to check everyday to make sure it hasn’t expire 4 weeks early.

Edit: This is in response to the reply by the developer. It doesn’t matter what you have written on some website. I download a movie or a show and it says it will expire in 29 days. A few hours later it changes to start counting down from 72 hours or something like that. If it’s only good for 3 days, why say 29 days? That’s an issue on your end that needs to be fixed, not send me somewhere where it explains how it should be. The app should be right from the start. But then when I tell it to renew my download, it makes it look like it did by having the movie or show under my downloads and not grayed out or having the exclamation mark over the picture. So the renew feature also needs to be fixed. For giving me the runaround, I’m taking my rating down to one star. The next step, deleting and canceling my subscription.

### 2/5 — Great content/terrible app

*2022-04-14, version 52.15.0*

The content this streaming app has already and is coming up with is phenomenal in all levels, which makes the following all the more painful. The app is slow, buggy, and glitchy. I can’t watch this app on my Vizio tv because it’s always freezing, glitchy and the audio desynchronizes. All of this at random times. I wish it was just certain shows, but unfortunately I haven’t found a movie or show in which it doesn’t happen. I used to think it was my internet or my tv, but it’s the only streaming app that gives me these problems. I wish it was only happening in my tv, but it also happens in all my devices, although in my phone and iPad it happens less. I end up hailing to download the shows in my phone or iPad to then watch them. However, the download doesn’t always work either; sometimes downloads have unexpected errors and I have to try 5 times to get a show or movie downloaded. I have some feedback about the interface too, but there’s no point in focusing on that until all of these bugs are fixed. Actually, there is one interface note that I don’t think should wait until the bugs are fixed, the fact that when you’re done watching an episode or movie and want to rewatch it, instead of starting over (because you’ve finished it) it goes back to where you left off in the credits. Really?

### 2/5 — Terrible App! Quality Content

*2022-03-28, version 52.15.0*

HBO clearly has big budget capabilities, but this app isn’t it. It’s so buggy. It crashes all the time. The main issue seems to be downloading shows. If you’re lucky, one show will download. The download will fail a few times, but eventually it gets there. But NEVER try to download two shows at once. It will crash for sure. After you get the one show to download, that’s it. Every other download will fail and/or crash the app. I haven’t tried downloading a movie because a 60 min show takes all my patience. Next you have the caching issue… every time you move from a screen back to the previous screen it has to reload the whole page again. And it’s not fast about it. And last, offline is a struggle, but once you get the app to come to terms with being offline, it will get the job done. However, it doesn’t seem to sync back to my HBO profile, so when I go back to my AppleTV, it doesn’t register that I’ve already watched a few shows of a series. 

 I need HBO iOS and AppleTV apps to be a lot better. Their app have always been terrible, but it’s gotten so bad that I’m now one of those people leaving a long ranting app review, screaming into the void, as if it’s going to help.

### 2/5 — Buggy, slow, poorly designed, screen-waster

*2022-02-19, version 52.5.0.52*

Got a decent size iPhone? Good thing, cause this poorly designed app will waste about 30% of the screen by putting black bars on all four sides. They apparently took away full-screen mode at some point in the past year. Seems like it was intentional, since people have been complaining and they haven’t brought it back. I just rejoined, and the bad experience is making me think it will be a pay-for-a-month-and-out situation. Get your act together, HBO. Why throw all that money at making good content if your app dev team is going to chase away your subscribers? 

Update: the Developer response only addresses my “feature request” for full screen. That is a “feature restore” after some bizarrely-bad decision to remove it. I’m not going to go fill out some form to get it back - this should be obvious. 
Also, the app is objectively bad in many ways: slow, laggy, locks up randomly, crashes, poorly laid-out, odd controls, and so much more. No amount of feedback can help a team that would release such a bad app in the first place. They need to just look at other apps that work correctly, and do that. 
My review here is just to give fair warning to anyone considering watching HBO on their iPhone that it will be an annoying experience. The developer shouldn’t need to read the details here to know they’ve got a mess on their hands.

### 2/5 — Great movies terrible app

*2022-02-07, version 52.5.0.52*

I love the amount of shows and movies HBO Max is. Totally worth spending money on, the problem I have is that it’s so slow and a nuisance when watching a movie or show and I get notification about streaming either with cellular data or WiFi. It’s so annoying having to go back and forth turning them on and off because of how it won’t stop changing it’s “mind” on my connection. Wish it was like Netflix more. Where it’s automatic on both ends. What’s also annoying is clicking in and out. I can’t exit the app with it still playing the movie. Another complaint is that the episodes aren’t laid out, have to retype the title to see again what is next or reading the description. It’s just super slow and is nowhere near how amazing the Netflix app is built.  I hope it develops new downloads where it doesn’t create such a hassle trying to watch my shows and movies because it’s not worth $10 a month if all it’s gonna do is create problems and not allow me to watch movies on a smooth run. Also last thing, I hate how it’s so slow when I try to replay back. This goes the same for the website as well. Like Netflix has never given me this problem (I’m not complaining that Netflix is better but in comparison between app navigation, it is top tier) I like rewinding to watch best comical scenes and whatnot but Everytime I do on HBO I have to remind self to try and not do it or it crashes into this slow time warp. Please fix this!!

### 1/5 — Default Setting is Only Stream Over Wifi

*2022-01-07, version 50.63.0*

I have experiences a lot of problems with this app. First it wouldn’t transition into background (in-picture) mode. It would just shut off whatever I was watching when I went to use another app (the other movie/TV app has never done this to me). Then it makes it incredibly difficult to browse a tv show’s catalogue if you recently watched an episode of that same show. For example, when I attempt to watch select episodes of South Park it’s a real pain to watch an episode from season 11 if I recently watched an episode from season 9. It will only let me watch the next consecutive episode in season 11. And then the app kept crashing. Full disclosure, I use a VPN and I am aware that this may conflict with geofencing of content limited to  certain markets, etc.  However, it seems that unless I disconnect the VPN prior to browsing on the HBO Max app, the app irreparably crashes necessitating deletion of the app, powering off/restarting my device, then redone loading the app. And also, the downloading of content to your device feature for future offline viewing does not work. Why? Because the app doesn’t work if your not online!!! I know I’ve been spoiled by other streaming services but there is no excuse for this bugginess. None.

### 1/5 — Cancelling Service Until Bugs Are Fixed

*2021-09-17, version 50.45.0*

*Update* I was contacted by an HBO+ app developer to provide information regarding which streaming device I am using. However, the links I was given to provide a response direct me to inactive webpages…..so….I guess I will respond here. I’m using Roku and have confirmed that I am using the most current version. Despite current update,  issues described below have not resolved. 

The plus is that the content is pretty decent with new items being added weekly. The downside is that the app is so buggy you can’t stream anything! Slow to start, significant delays when navigating the Home Screen, slow to load lists…this app is beyond frustrating! Don’t even try to toggle between the different app features or fast forward/rewind a show or movie (if you’re lucky enough to get one to actually load). The app frequently crashes when trying to search or stream any content. I’ve been trying to stream content for several days now and the app crashes before the movie loads EVERY TIME!! I get so fed up that I end up moving on to a different streaming service. HBO announced an update 6 days ago that was supposed to resolve these issues but I have the most current version downloaded and still dealing with the same glitches. This app is an embarrassment to HBO and their app developers. There is no point in paying for a service I can’t use. Until I’m convinced the bugs are fixed, I’m cancelling my subscription.

### 1/5 — Content is great, app is embarrassing

*2021-08-02, version 50.40.0*

I really thought that with the amount of money hbo has made with their top notch programming, that their app developers would also be top notch. I was wildly disappointed. I really hate to say this but this must be the worst streaming app I have ever used! So glitchy to the point that I sometimes give up watching on the platform because I’m annoyed of how long it takes to load. And forget about trying to fast forward or rewind. Not only is it slower than MOLASSES on my tv, but on my iPad, it will just continue to rewind/fast forward unless you touch another part of the screen. You should be able to double tap the screen and ff/r. How isn’t that an option? The other day, I tried casting from my iPad to my tv and the audio would only play every other half second. Like what???? Also, why does my brand new tv not have an hbo max app, but my tv that is 4 YEARS older have it? And the only way for me to use the app is through my shield device AND THE APP DOESNT EVEN LOAD. Like I’m truly just baffled. I really really really love the content but the app just makes me hate watching the shows because I get so frustrated trying to operate it. Please fix!

P.S. just discovered that watching hbo on my nvidia shield is even worse than on any other platform. Sound is only heard every other half second. Nvidia has even tried contacting hbo with no luck!!! I really can’t fathom the multitude of problems with a streaming service!!

### 1/5 — Awful app and service

*2021-07-20, version 50.35.1*

I got a one month subscription to watch a few shows that I can’t find anywhere else. It seemed like a good deal. I installed the app on my tablet, tv, and po home, and I can’t get the app to work well on any device. On the tv, the show will start, then about every 5-10 minutes will freeze and get stuck on a two second loop. Getting out of the app and back in doesn’t help either. On my tablet, I can only get to the loony half the time and when I do, I only get the option to download shows, not watch them. My phone is a bit better, but still very slow. For $15 a month, I expect to be able to watch something, not get so frustrated that I have to get out of the app for the 10th time in an hour show and hope that it doesn’t freeze again.

I looked up some troubleshooting options on their help page and followed all the steps. Still not working. So I contact support and chat with an agent for 30 minutes. In that time the agent asked for my name 5 times and could not find my account during that entire time. The agent eventually just gave up. I feel stupid for paying for a month and only a week in, I can’t watch anything without serious playback issues or even get into the app half the time.

### 1/5 — Glitchy to the point of being useless

*2021-07-03, version 50.35.0*

We’ve used HBO Max for quite some time now with no issues. Seamless just like any other app and never had any complaints....until recently. One day we found ourselves unable to access any movies or shows on our TV with a prompt to “access HBO Max” but the button wasn’t clickable. Just completely unresponsive. After about an hour and a half of trying to troubleshoot(router reset, app reinstall, app update, signing into the mobile app, etc..) and going in circles with a useless customer service, we canceled the account under my girlfriends information and created a new one under mine. For some reason, this worked. Got charged twice in one month with this solution, but we were back in action. Here we are two weeks later and the app is so glitchy we literally cannot get through 20 minutes of a movie or show. It’ll randomly start looping a 10 second clip and all the controls stop working. Resetting the TV resets the app and it’s the only way to revert back. This was happening before when navigating the menu which was also super frustrating; but now I’m literally paying for a service that is unusable. Netflix and other steaming services work fine, but for some reason HBO can’t figure it out. Absolutely terrible service. They should fix these bugs and give their subscribers a month or two free of charge for the trouble, as I’m not the only one experiencing these issues.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — HBO: How’s it Broken so Often

*2023-02-04, version 53.05.0*

If you rely on this app for downloads as I did then it’s not worth $15 a month. This app has constant glitches and bugs. I go out fishing so I rely on downloading shows or movies to watch while I’m gone because I don’t have service. There have been multiple times when I don’t have service that I can’t even access my downloads. When I was able to access them after 5-15 minutes they would not play at all, just a black screen. Another ridiculous feature is you are limited to 30 downloads! Netflix which is cheaper never has these problems and allows unlimited downloads. Another ridiculous and stupid feature, once you start watching a DL it is only available for 24 hrs. After using this app it is clear why Netflix is destroying the competition and have been for years. Who cares how big your catalog is if your app doesn’t function properly. There are times where I have service and still get play back errors to the point I have to close the app and reopen it multiple times. It feels like the app designers for HBmax are my parents, the people that couldn’t turn on a desktop computer when I was a kid! This app is VERY UNRELIABLE and I’m sick of reporting constant issues. I shouldn’t have to explain to app engineers how to build a properly functioning app.

### 1/5 — That's All She Wrote Folks!

*2022-12-14, version 52.55.0*

The new CEO of Warner Brothers is working on making HBOMAX into a wasteland. We now have a crass capitalist messing with the crown jewel of entertainment. He has shut down productions, shopped out catalog content with more on the chopping block, then removing them from HBOMAX altogether. His goal is to merge his bargain basement programming from Discovery + with HBOMAX. News flash ... if he thinks the customers of Discovery + are going to pay higher prices to watch HBOMAX content he is smokin' something. If he thinks HBOMAX customers are going to be thrilled about less content and the addition of reality shows he's got rocks in his head. His visions of grandeur are going to be short lived. What he will see is a lot of churn from both sides. Additionally, more than likely, the quality of shows on HBOMAX will suffer as he tries to cut costs and create shows that his Discovery + clientele will be drawn to. Discovery plus customers will reject the rebranding because of price and content that requires mental effort to understand. The difference in those customer bases is like trying to mix oil and water. To be this out of touch with the type of consumers who frequent these services is astounding to say the least. In this years Emmys, HBO/HBOMAX won 38 times, the most of any network. Programming on Discovery + won ... zip! In short, this is like trying to meld 'The Inquirer' with 'The Washington Post' .... not the mark of a CEO genius.

### 1/5 — Paid for a year subscription, doesn’t work, can’t get a refund?

*2022-11-10, version 52.50.0*

I love the catalog on HBOmax, as it just has so much to offer. However, I’m incredibly frustrated with this platform and their incompetent customer service. I made an account, and purchased the yearly subscription, which amounted to $105. I log in on my device to stream, but a message pops up saying the title I wanted to watch was unavailable with my current subscription. So I go to my account settings in the app and it says I have no active subscription, after I JUST shelled out over a hundred dollars. The app then asks me who my provider is, even though I don’t have one. I contact customer service for a refund and they say they cannot locate my account. I send screenshots and records of my purchase made to HBO, and they keep asking me for alternate emails and zip codes that may be associated with my account and payment method. I have not heard back from HBO, and I don’t think I’ll be getting my money back. DO BETTER HBO!!!!!!!

Update: i have tried contacting HBO support to receive a refund for my UNUSABLE SERVICE and have jumped through multiple hoops, provided them the SAME information a million times and I still have heard nothing from them. HBO support team is utterly USELESS and completely incompetent.

### 1/5 — Unbelievably buggy, especially for downloading content and playing it offline

*2022-09-30, version 52.45.0*

This review is not about the content on HBO Max but about the app itself. This app is slow to respond and load which is a bit annoying. But it is unbelievably buggy and almost unusable when trying to download content. Once you manage to download your content without the app crashing or stalling out, trying to play your downloaded content often leads to an error about not having a connection. Isn’t that the point of downloading content… so you can play it offline….? This issue is particularly frustrating to have once you’re already somewhere out of cell range and thought you’d be able to watch something you downloaded only for it to require an internet connection. This seems to be an issue that HBO Max is aware of because they have a series of steps to go through to try and resolve the error on their website. But even that doesn’t work half the time. I’ve even tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app with no luck. Once in a blue moon the HBO Max gods smile upon you and you can watch your downloaded content. But holy — for one of the big streaming services to have an app this bad is mind boggling.

### 1/5 — Your app is super annoying and buggy Contant is five star

*2022-09-12, version 52.40.0*

Your Contant is five star but it brings it down to one star in a matter of moments because of the frustration of your app I just finally got logged back into my app when suddenly the next day the thing logged me out on its own and would not let me log back in again this is happened so many times it’s getting to be very annoying fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app is this repeat annoying you’re probably not even reading these reviews most likely but if you are your app is much more annoying than saying fix your app over and over again and stop logging people out every five minutes and stop locking people out so they have to reset their passwords over and over again if I could I’d report you to apple if I knew how and to AT&T which I still could not that I think they’ll probably do anything about it they’ll probably say they can’t do anything on their end. Again I say please fix your app everybody here seems to be having the same problem why don’t you listen to them read your reviews increase your customer service by fixing your app

### 1/5 — Thoroughly broken apps & utterly inept customer service

*2022-08-12, version 52.35.1*

I’m not sure any elaboration is necessary but in case you want it: App failures run the gamut, from full crashes to any function you can think of “working” one day, completely wasting your time again the next, and back again whenever. Even when app functions are “working”, the app and all its functions are so poorly thought out it’s cumbersome to use at the best of times. The apps are so bad that if you make the mistake of contacting customer service they’ll quickly whine to you about how new they are so you should give them a break. HBO, the inventors of cable TV, who between HBO Go, Now, and Max have had well over a decade to give a hoot about creating a decent app and have so astoundingly failed to do so the only reasonable conclusion is that they just don’t care, that HBO wants you to give them a break because they’re the new kids on the block. But seriously, don’t even try contacting customer service if you wish to maintain sanity. Just cut and run. Anyone you speak with at any level is either ill-informed, ill-equipped, incapable, just doesn’t care, or any combination thereof.

Edit: Don’t be fooled by “Warner Media responded to my review”. 100% of my dozens of attempts to resolve issues over the past months have proven that this company has absolutely no interest or ability to help in any way with any problem you might have

### 1/5 — Download to play later: Only in airplane mode?!

*2022-08-08, version 52.35.0*

The latest update has broken a very basic and needed feature. If you download anything on wifi to watch later (to save your cell data), the only way you can view the download is by putting your phone in *airplane mode*. Even turning off wifi and cell data isn’t enough because the app complains you don’t have an internet connection to *stream* the *downloaded* video! Why do we have to render our phones useless in order to watch something specifically designed to be watched when we have limited (or only costly) internet access????

Edit: the response was a joke. It sent me to their help form. I got an email response offering to resolve “only allows playback of downloads on wifi to view later” and a link telling me how to download for later viewing.  It then sent me over to chat help to resolve my issues trying to stream content.  There was little response from the first ‘person’ about trying to stream on a different device. Then after explaining the issue yet again, a new ‘person’ came onto the chat and offered to help me stream my downloaded video while in airplane mode(??).  Again, this last update has rendered the app useless.  I hope playback is possible in future updates.

### 1/5 — Accessible but, AD is not updated regularly...

*2022-06-07, version 52.25.0*

As a blind person, I have issues with lots of apps. I don't usually complain if it's not something I really want to use. I have video on demand and use this service. I also have the app on my telephone. It is very accessible. I am grateful for that. I am also grateful for an audio description section. The only issue I have with this is, it's not updated like everything else. If I go to the movie theater, watch a movie with audio description headphones. Shouldn't that also be on the HBO Max platform? If I watch a movie or Series on the HBO Max app and the show or movie has audio description, shouldm't that also be on my video on demand? If something is released from the beginning with audio description, how is it not on every platform that provides that entertainment? This is unacceptable. If A film company or production provides you audio description when they release art to the public on all platforms, why don't the platforms use it? Oh yeah. I forgot. Blind people don't watch TV or movies or do anything else to be productive citizens on this planet. I feel disrespected by platforms especially, when I talk to customer service or send an email with feedback and nothing ever changes. Do your job or I'll go somewhere else and take my money with me.t

### 1/5 — TERRIBLE Buffering to the Point Where You Can Never Watch Anything

*2022-04-29, version 52.20.0*

I never write reviews, but I bought this on accident because unfortunately if you start the process of making an account, it charges you through the App Store, rather than asking you to put card information in on a later step. So I figured I’d try it out for at least a month, and in the couple days I’ve had it, I can almost never actually watch anything. Even when it says my wifi strength is strong and every other streaming service I have works perfectly fine, this one does not. I can barely ever get stuff to start and the few times I actually can, I can never even finish an entire episode before it starts buffering again and fails to play. This has happened on my phone and on my smart tv and it also has happened in more than one place on different wifi connections. My smart tv and iPhone are also both up-to-date and I’ve tried restarting both multiple times. I’ve had a little more luck watching on my phone, but it is still a pain and I would much rather watch off of my tv. It’s disappointing because they offer some really good movies and shows, but in my experience I can’t even watch them, and looking at a large portion of reviews, many people have experienced the same thing with HBO Max.

### 1/5 — App embarrassing for HBO brand

*2022-04-08, version 52.15.0*

HBO has long been known for great content, but this app tarnishes their rep.  There are so many issues I don’t know where to start.  First off, it is extremely slow. This includes loading time but even just clicking any button takes about 10 seconds to do anything. For example, deleting a download takes forever and there is no indicator that it is doing something. Downloads are touchy. You can only download one show/episode at a time or they will fail. Then you can’t restart the download, you have to delete it, search for the show and try again. Several times I have tried to watch a download on a plane. If you aren’t connected to the internet you can get a message that you aren’t connected and it kicks you out of your logged in session. What is the point of downloads other than to watch offline?  My last complaint is usability. Simple things like when you see shows you are currently watching there is no option to go to the landing page for the show. You can only resume the one you are watching. It is not a great experience to have to search for the show when the current episode is right there I front of you. When you compare the quality of the app to others this one falls way short.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — HBO reigns supreme

*2022-07-22, version 52.31.0*

If the streaming services were in the military, then HBOMax would be the general of it all! First off I love the original movies and shows. 99% of the time it’s award winning in my opinion. The selection of movies they have is incredible, it’s not like most other services that give you a couple A movies and then the next 300 are low budget crappy movies. No HBO has a very wide range of of tier one movies for every genre and if you don’t want to watch a movie then have your pick at some of the greatest shows ever made. I have watched band of brothers about 17 times now along with my favorite Westworld and I love that you get this great service and not to mention same day releases of movies that are premiering in the theater with everything that I have mentioned before at a awesome price per month and I have had the service for 3 years now and it’s stayed the same so big congratulations to HBOMax for not jacking up the price like everything else is doing in the world. I would recommend this service to anyone who wants a great deal and awesome place to watch great shows and movies!!!

### 5/5 — Works Fine for Me

*2022-06-03, version 52.25.0*

I was surprised to see how low the rating was while updating the app recently (2.8 as of June 2022), and kinda feel compelled to provide a different perspective for folks. My experience with the HBO app has been totally fine, as in it does exactly what it’s supposed to and works just as well as any other streaming app I use. Just from a technical standpoint (not talking content), I read a lot about bugginess and slow loads on fast connections, but it works like a charm for me and has always been reliable. I’m using an iPhone 12 Mini with the latest iOS and good internet, not sure if that makes a difference. Given how solid HBO/Warner’s selection of shows and movies is (now I’m talking content), I wouldn’t want folks to miss out or not try it on their phones because they think the app’s gonna crash regularly. Or maybe it will for you, who knows, but I’ve been using it almost entirely on mobile for over a year and have had zero issues. Take it or leave - cheers!

### 5/5 — Needs expanded screen and playback screen option

*2022-02-09, version 52.5.0.52*

As with everyone else, content is great, but in 2021 you should be able to have the option to: 1. Expand the screen Yes, I get that HBO wants the experience to be consistent throughout all devices, but not all devices are the same size. Even for content that clearly does not fill out any sides of the screen you are not able to expand that. Easy fix and implementation, yet HBO is too stubborn to allow it. 2. Video speed control Let people consume the content how they want to. If keeping users on your app is the goal, then give users a customizable experience. I would like to spend more time on this app, such as when I'm on my breaks at work, however given the lack of expanded full screen, I am unable to view the content as it's too small, so I don't stay on the app

***edit 2/9/22***
HBO Max has recently added expanding the screen, which is a huge option for users. Consistency seems to have improved as well. 
Big steps in the right direction, changing it from 1 star to 5 stars as I value adapting to customer responses.

### 5/5 — HBO Enforces Mandatory Letterboxing for “CoNsIsTeNt ViEwInG eXpErIeNcE”

*2022-02-01, version 52.5.0.52*

EDIT: Freedom to watch content in preferred aspect ratio is restored! Pinch to zoom to full screen works again. Five stars restored; thanks for listening, HBO. 

Original review:
There used to be a button in the bottom right corner that eliminated the black bars at the top and bottom, clipped the video, and made it full screen. This is the optimal viewing experience for me and I’ve enjoyed it that way before the update and even on HBO Go before that. It’s gone now and I’m livid. Without this feature, you do not have the freedom to choose your best viewing experience. You have no choice at all now; instead, you pay to have HBO decide for you. HBO makes you suffer without this feature because they want to foster a “consistent viewing experience across all devices”. So I guess not being able to watch content the way you prefer doesn’t qualify as a good “experience” anymore. My experience is derived from the freedom to watch the content how I like it, so to remove that freedom seems counterintuitive, foolish, and nonsensical. My friends, our preferences shouldn’t be dictated by HBO. I yearn for the day our freedom will be restored in an update because, only then, will we have the truly optimal experience we used to expect from the Home Box Office.

### 5/5 — Edit: Issue Resolved - Apple TV Version Broken

*2021-06-11, version 50.30.1*

After the most recent update the standard Apple TV scrubbing has been replaced with a version that is nearly unusable. Clicking the far right or left of the remote’s touchpad no longer skips forward/back, tapping no longer brings up the time bar, and swiping on the touchpad scrubs without the need for pausing and at a speed that makes it nearly impossible to move to an accurate time (it seems that now the width of the touch pad relates to the entire time bar so that, starting from the beginning of an episode, one swipe from left to right will take you to the end of the episode/movie). The last point causes problems because you need to swipe on the touch pad to bring up the time bar, and I’ve accidentally skipped most of the way through what I’m watching when only trying to see how much is left. This along with the removal of support for 15s skips (which is standard for any streaming service) makes it very difficult to move forward or back a short amount of time. Additionally, the Play Next Episode function is somewhat broken on both Apple TV and iOS. On Apple TV it isn’t possible to swipe to the button, and attempting to click on it seems to both pause whatever’s playing and move to the next episode, almost as if the two fields were selected at this same time. This makes it impossible to pause at the end of an episode once Next Episode has appeared, and equally impossible to move away from the next episode button.

### 4/5 — Great content, problems with app

*2022-08-01, version 52.35.0*

I’m streaming HBO Max on a Roku Ultra and agree with others that the app could use some improvement and is kind of buggy. For me, the sign in process was a problem.  I changed my password and couldn’t sign out on my Roku, the button was in settings but it wouldn’t sign me out.  I had to go to the app on my phone and remove the device manually.  For a premium service such as this, it could use some improvement.  It streams beautifully for me, but the navigation and other functions are a little behind the other streaming services.

The variety of content that you offer is very good, considering all the the hubs to the other services and new content on a regular basis.  I think the price is fair compared to the other services; I signed up for an annual subscription of ad-free (actually a renewal) and got a little price break.  I enjoy many shows and films, but got hooked on “The Gilded Age” and look forward to season 2.  The new documentary on Arthur Ashe is excellent.  If you could make some improvements to the app, this would be practically perfect.

### 3/5 — The app keeps getting annoying problems

*2023-01-07, version 52.55.0*

As I have said in the past the content is good in this service. But once again the app keeps having annoying problems. On my iPad every time I download movies to watch offline the app doesn’t play the downloaded content because according to the app I have no connection. The whole point of having movies on the Downloaded section is to watch them offline not have to look for a wifi spot to be able to play it. Its ridiculous. The app on the Apple tv is very slow. It used to be faster but now when you open the app not only you have to wait for the logo to go away, you have to wait another loading before choosing the profile you want to use, then when you go to search a movie is another loading time you have to wait. The pop ups in the middle of the menu whenever something new gets released is also a problem. Im paying for the premium “no ads” subscription, I should get an option to remove add pop ups on the menu and completely remove the first movie ad thats about to get released not just get a skip button at the beginning of a movie. Having a skip button doesn’t mean no ads. Thats falls advertisement.

### 3/5 — Refine airplay streaming capabilities ASAP!!!

*2021-09-10, version 50.45.0*

Ok app overall at first but start to use heavy especially on iPhone 11 air playing to Apple TV - I have noticed a few bugs centered around airplaying that need to be addressed ASAP.   First the buffering could be improved greatly especially at the first 5, 8, 15 or so minutes and around 37th- 45th minutes.  If you watch series like DC Titans or others- the  app hangs when switching to next episode - this happens quite often - app continually becomes unresponsive and has to be exited. I played around with security or screen lock to see if this affects but have yet definite conclusion as to the cause! Also each episode starts with the Audio description enabled. EACH time a new episode starts it resets the audio description to on!  The only way I have found to turn it off is to toggle audio description on then to English or Spanish then back off.  Gets old doing this each time. Also happens with some of the newer movies too.  Regression test app with older Apple TV’s as it does this on earlier Gen Apple TV’s too. Does it on my older model A1469!  In short refine and streamline the apps airplay abilities for a more enjoyable seamless streaming experience.  Thxs in advance happy coding and regression testing :) 👍😎

### 3/5 — Amazing shows and content-But needs fixes

*2021-06-18, version 50.30.1*

The show catalogue is one of her greatest I have seen in almost every streaming service out there. There are great shows to binge and great shows to watch slowly.

Now the issues. This app has plenty. It is very buggy. I have watched on multiple different devices and the same bugs persist. Every once and a while you will get an error message or a poor connection prompt. It’s annoying but an easy fix, I just restart the page or relaunch the app. The biggest problem I have that I desperately hope gets fixed is the fast forwarding and rewinding function. Even the little 15 second rewinds are a pain to deal with. To rewind a minute took me two and a half minutes. I would press the rewind 15 seconds button and it would buffer and take me back 15 seconds then almost immediately return me to the time I rewinded from. I’d press it again and the error still persisted. I’d have to wait about 30 seconds between each time I pressed it to press it again which makes it impossible to go back and see something you missed. Please if some executive hears this, just fix this and your app will be amazing.

### 3/5 — Love the content, but the app leaves much to be desired

*2021-05-06, version 50.25.0*

I really like the content on HBO Max. They have great original shows and movies as well as a lot of popular releases. My only grievance lies with the app. Across all platforms (Xbox, iPhone/iPad, Samsung TV) I consistently receive messages saying the content cannot be played (often times while the show or movie continues to play). I do everything short of uninstalling and reinstalling the app because that can be a massive inconvenience (not trying to do that while exercising, for example), and often I continue to get the error even after multiple restarts. Also, the UI is not the best - it takes some trial and error to figure out how to get to the point where you can choose a season of a show for example. There are also some other, more tolerable issues such as when l download things and try to play them it says I’m not connected to wifi (the whole reason I download is to watch off wifi as I assume is the case for most), long load/buffer times or just randomly logging me out. Again, highly recommend the content and this review would easily be 5 stars if the app itself didn’t need as much work as it does.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*