HBO Max to Completely Overhaul Buggy Apple TV App By End of Year

HBO Max will release a completely rebuilt Apple TV app by the end of the year to overcome a variety of issues users have experienced with the current version, according to a new report.

hbomax1
Shortly after Warnermedia removed its HBO Max offering from ‌Apple TV‌ Channels in May, an update to its subsequently released tvOS app essentially broke several features of the service.

In June, HBO Max dropped the native tvOS video player in favor of a custom video player, which introduced issues with fast-forwarding and rewinding video in the app.

Recognizing its mistake, HBO quickly reinstated the native tvOS video player UI. However, problems with playback control remained, while users have continued to report other issues to do with subtitles and audio description.

According to HBO Max execs who spoke to Vulture, these remaining errors should be corrected for all ‌Apple TV‌ users "within days," while subscribers can expect the rollout of a completely new app to match the needs of the current service.

"We're going to replace every single connected TV app in the next four or five months," said an unnamed WarnerMedia exec. Apple TV customers will likely have to wait until the end of the year for the new app to appear, and an overhaul of the mobile and web-based apps is planned for early 2022.

According to the report, the problems started when the company launched a new $10 ad-supported tier and expanded its app to 39 new countries in June. Integrating commercials into what had been an ad-free platform required the introduction of a whole new layer of app coding, and that's when the widely reported bugs were established.

WarnerMedia has also admitted that the current HBO Max app wasn't built from scratch, and has been running on a retrofitted version of the old HBO Go and HBO Now services, which were designed for a very different product. Hence the decision to start afresh with a completely new app, which has been in the works since at least late last year.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tag: HBO Max
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 3 4ths Perspective Aluminum Camera Module 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple 2025 Thumb 1

10 Products Still Coming From Apple in 2025

Friday April 11, 2025 4:14 pm PDT by
Apple may have updated several iPads and Macs late last year and early this year, but there are still multiple new devices that we're looking forward to seeing in 2025. Most will come in September or October, but there could be a few surprises before then. We've rounded up a list of everything that we're still waiting to see from Apple in 2025. iPhone 17, 17 Air, and 17 Pro - We get...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Triad

Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen

Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself. Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Foldable iPhone Resolutions Leak With Under-Screen Camera Tipped

Monday April 14, 2025 3:12 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold") will feature two screens as part of its book-style design, and a Chinese leaker claims to know the resolutions for both of them. According to the Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station, the inner display, which is approximately 7.76 inches, will use a 2,713 x 1,920 resolution and feature "under-screen camera technology." Meanwhile, the...
iPad Pro iPadOS

iPadOS 19 Will Be 'More Like macOS' in Three Ways

Sunday April 13, 2025 6:43 am PDT by
A common complaint about the iPad Pro is that the iPadOS software platform fails to fully take advantage of the device's powerful hardware. That could soon change. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that iPadOS 19 will be "more like macOS." Gurman said that iPadOS 19 will be "more like a Mac" in three ways:Improved productivity Improved multitasking Improved app window management...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday April 15, 2025 7:37 am PDT by
The first iOS 19 beta is less than two months away, and there are already a handful of new features that are expected with the update. Apple should release the first iOS 19 beta to developers immediately following the WWDC 2025 keynote, which is scheduled for Monday, June 9. Following beta testing, the update should be released to the general public in September. Below, we recap the key...
Apple Vision Pro with battery Feature Blue Magenta

Vision Pro 2 Rumored to Have Two Key Advantages Over Current Model

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:15 am PDT by
Apple is working on a new version of the Vision Pro with two key advantages over the current model, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Specifically, in his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said Apple is developing a new headset that is both lighter and less expensive than the current Vision Pro, which starts at $3,499 in the U.S. and weighs up to 1.5 pounds. Gurman said Apple is also...
Apple Bristol Current

An Apple Store in the UK is Permanently Closing Later This Year

Monday April 14, 2025 7:33 am PDT by
Apple has confirmed that it will be permanently closing its retail store in the heart of Bristol, England, and there is no replacement in sight. Apple Bristol in 2023 Apple Bristol will be closing its doors on Saturday, August 9, due to redevelopment plans at the Cabot Circus Shopping Centre, and the adjacent Bristol Shopping Quarter. According to news reports, and a building application, the ...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

Waiting for the Perfect MacBook Pro? 2026 Might Be the Year

Thursday April 10, 2025 4:19 am PDT by
Apple in October 2024 overhauled its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, adding M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display changes, and more. That's quite a lot of updates in one go, but if you think this means a further major refresh for the MacBook Pro is now several years away, think again. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said he expects only a small...

Top Rated Comments

Muzzakus Avatar
48 months ago
Just use the tvOS building blocks ffs. Apple, be your douche controlling selves and enforce GUI standards on atv. What’s the point of paying for the hardware if the apps are just the same as on a cheap Chinese android stick! Jesus wept!
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
48 months ago

Just use the tvOS building blocks ffs. Apple, be your douche controlling selves and enforce GUI standards on atv. What’s the point of paying for the hardware if the apps are just the same as on a cheap Chinese android stick! Jesus wept!
They should also force every channel to tie in with the TV app. I regularly forget about stuff in Netflix because it doesn't show up on my home screen the way things from HBO, Disney+, Hulu and Apple TV+ do.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
foobarbaz Avatar
48 months ago
Nothing good has ever come from a complete rewrite, though.

We developers think it’s the easiest way to fix all bugs, but unless the underlying structural problems (like bad QA, wrong priorities) are fixed, it typically ends up worse.

Fingers crossed, though.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JBGoode Avatar
48 months ago
Great. I'll be happy when this is released as the current app is garbage.

I paused a movie last night and when I hit play again it started from a point 10 minutes earlier.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EyeTack Avatar
48 months ago

According to the report, the problems started when the company launched ('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/02/hbo-max-ad-supported-tier-now-available/') a new $10 ad-supported tier
Taking it from both ends … sounds like cable with extra steps.

I remember the original attraction to cable was the limited intrusion of programming.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kerr Avatar
48 months ago
How about the bug that HBO Max is only available in the US?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)