New Now app discussion thread

[Saint1976]

The new app on Roku has been live for about 24 hours so a chance for users to give some feedback, hints and tips or highlight things that aren't obvious.

Positives for me;

Navigating the app is much quicker and the remote seems more responsive.

The time bar/search is superior to previous efforts. Click right to skip 10 seconds or hold down to the right and the timer slides showing progress in minutes.

Subtitles on live TV including live sports broadcasts.

Subtitle text size can be changed in Roku system settings.

Auto play next episode now active although I'd like a way to switch it on or off.

Negatives

Some of the text is way too small.

Can't change live channels without exiting the current stream and returning to TV guide. A big no no from me!

TV guide on the top row of tabs should be next to Home making access quicker.

Still can't skip promos at the start of on demand content but for some strange reason there's the option to pause.

A question - on live sports broadcasts there is a greyed out "go live" icon. Does that mean we are going to get the option for in broadcast replays of key moments? Or is that purely for the pause live broadcast function? If it's the latter, it doesn't work. I tested by pausing for 2 minutes, pressed play and the "go live" is still greyed out.

[petecc]

@RoyB,

If you have to distribute the system, then in order to get instant update of changes to things like the Watchlist across apps (something every other streaming service I've used manages), you need to make sure that each account is associated with a single database of their user specific information and is only transferred to another copy in case of failure. Syncs to a any central database and distribution to others needs to be frequent and reliable - and, of course, there then needs to be a backup of all that to deal with that failure.

The principle still applies to each user's access to their data under all normal operation.

Yes, I'm sure it's a duplication (not that getting somebody else's would be any better). I had to create a completely new Watchlist for the Roku app and there is no synchronisation between that and the website and Android apps. Ironically, the Roku version seems more reliable. The website and Android version keeps randomly removing items from the list.

The whole NOW software system is unacceptably unreliable. How long have NOW been operating? Surely long enough to get basic functionality working, yet they seem to be more intent on the UI than fixing the basic problems. If there was any way I could roll back the Roku app to the previous version, I wouldn't hesitate. The improvements are just not significant enough to lose the basic synchronisation.

My comments about the software team stand. If somebody had produced this kind of unreliable, bug ridden software in any of the companies I've worked for, they'd have been quickly shown the door. And where is the testing and code reliability checking? What about beta testing? The whole development cycle seems to be totally inept.

[petecc]

---

Ironically, the Roku version seems more reliable. The website and Android version keeps randomly removing items from the list.

Okay, I take that back. It seems the only thing that is synchronised is the random deletions from the Watchlist. Today Chicago PD was removed from both versions of my Watchlist. I re-added it on Android but it's still removed from Roku. What's even worse is that the Roku is refusing to  even let me add it back to its version of the Watchlist. I find it, select "Add to Watchlist", it says that it has been added, but if I then go back and look at the Watchlist, it's just not there.

Total, utter, inexcusable, unbelievable software development incompetence.

[RoyB]

@petecc 

Not on Now, which I have never tested, but on another product, I and my fellow beta testers received a hail of abuse over the rewritten product. But NDAs prevented us from explaining that we agreed with them, and had even predicted the likely backlash, but our feedback had been almost totally ignored.

I never tested for them again.

[petecc]

---

@RoyB wrote:

@petecc 

Not on Now, which I have never tested, but on another product, I and my fellow beta testers received a hail of abuse over the rewritten product. But NDAs prevented us from explaining that we agreed with them, and had even predicted the likely backlash, but our feedback had been almost totally ignored.

I never tested for them again.

---

@RoyB- yes, of course, beta testing is useless if you ignore the tester's feedback.

I once worked for a company that used peer code reviews in which other engineers attempted to pick holes in your code, both for bugs and for not following company  coding standards (which were exactly defined). They could be brutal and you quickly learned to take criticism and put your ego to one side - literally nobody is a perfect coder, everybody makes some mistakes. There were also comprehensive testing procedures and each test was also peer reviewed.

Now, this took time and therefore cost money, and admittedly this was for safety critical applications where bugs could literally kill people, not just ruin their experience, but we never delivered a bug to a customer in all the time I worked there.

I'm not suggesting the same level needs to be applied to an entertainment system but just a selected subset of this plus proper beta testing that takes notice of feedback and the adoption of certain good practice like I described above and, perhaps, some level of defensive programming and ensuring code readability and full commenting could massively improve reliability.

I'm not sure what practices other streaming services use, but they are all (at least all that I've used) obviously doing things in a more professional way than NOW. The unreliability of NOW software is truly shocking. It's bug-ridden mess.

[petecc]

As if to emphasise just how useless NOW customer service and bug fixing is, a few days ago there was an update to another app I use. Not a streaming app but one in widespread use in the UK and it broke a list that was associated with my specific account. So a similar problem to Roku Watchlist and Continue Watching.

This app has an in-app way to email bug reports, including diagnostics if you agree. I used that to report what was happening. Within just a few days, I had a reply. It apologised that it was a bulk message and not personal, it told me that they'd identified the problem, they were beta testing the solution, and gave me an expected date for a fix.

I don't even pay for this app (you can do to get extra features).

[RoyB]

@petecc 

If Now was a car, it would be a Trabant 😛

[petecc]

---

@RoyB wrote:

@petecc 

If Now was a car, it would be a Trabant 😛

---

🤣🤣🤣

[schnapps]

The live TV on the NOW App on my Roku now includes a method to see what's on the other live channels and switching channels inside a live stream (like previously before the App was updated).

Press the down arrow on the remote on a live TV NOW stream and then you will see a thumbnail grid row on what's on the other live channels without backing out to the TV Guide.

Haven't tested it yet, but initial impressions look good and the channel thumbnails look more fresh and modern, though you don't get what's on next channel information.

Also the two Kids live channels I reported missing previously has now returned since this latest App update.

[Saint1976]

@schnapps I spotted the update last week and have to admit that it's a very nice addition. Even better - it's available on the mobile app as well! Click the little loop icon in the bottom right corner, click change channel and you get a row of channel icons.