Searching for something to watch can often feel like a chore. Today, IMDb will launch a free IMDb What to Watch app for Fire TV, exclusively to users in the U.S., that gives customized movie and TV series recommendations across multiple streaming services tailored to their favorite genres, interests and current mood.
“Hundreds of millions of customers rely on IMDb when deciding what and where to watch,” said Nikki Santoro, chief operating officer, IMDb.
What started as a 90s hobby project has now turned into the most popular source for discovering entertainment. The database contains approximately 10+ million titles and has about 200 or more million monthly global visitors.
But many of us are tired of scrolling through the endless sea of content across our dozen streaming service subscriptions. Nielsen reported that almost half of all its survey respondents admitted they were overwhelmed by the surplus of content on streaming services. Families that are constantly fighting over the remote or those who are indecisive about what to watch (hence the name) might like playing with a new series of interactive mini-games by IMDb.
By using proprietary and authoritative IMDb data, the new app is designed to provide a selection of simple games that can help players discover movies and series. To save you even more time, the app gives you key details for each title, including genre, trailer, run time and plot summary. There will also be IMDb user ratings so you can get an unbiased opinion about the quality of the content and whether it’s worth watching or not. In addition, instead of clicking out of the app and having to search for the suggested movie or show, the What to Watch app lets you click on the title by using the Fire TV remote.
IMDb’s What to Watch app also offers quick-and-easy games such as “Quick Draw,” a card game that shuffles through movies and series options, revealing a trio of picks in seconds. The player can click “deal cards” over and over until they find something that catches their eye.
The second game is called “Watch Challenge,” which provides multiple curated IMDb lists of titles. For those with a collector mentality, this game allows players to watch, rate and collect digital stamps as they view titles from lists like the IMDb Top 250 movies, award-winning titles and popular franchises.
The third and last game that will be offered at launch is “This or That.” A pretty basic concept, the game is a series of “This or That?” questions based on what the player is looking for depending on their mood, genre, etc. There is also the ability to set a desired viewing time and rating.
According to the company, IMDb will continue to launch new games on the app, including coming-soon games “Time Machine,” which allows players to visit any time in history to see movies in their favorite decade, and “Build-a-Cast,” a game where players can create a dream cast and assemble the actors they want to watch. The company will announce these games to customers as soon as they are available.
The IMDb What to Watch app is available now to download for free from the Fire TV Appstore. Users who sign into their IMDb accounts on the app will receive updates on new features and games, can sync their personal ratings across IMDb and the IMDb What to Watch app, and more.
“Entertainment on Fire TV is all about discovering new shows and movies, connecting customers to content quickly, and being delighted by the experience,” said Charlotte Maines, director of Fire TV. “With the launch of the IMDb What to Watch app, we’re delivering customers a fun and engaging way to discover what’s next on movie night.”
As more users desire more personalized options, companies are attempting to solve this issue through more apps and features, such as Netflix with its recommendation system and its “Play Something” button, Plex’s new Discover section and the JustWatch app, among others. Netflix has also been embracing interactive content and gaming lately, with its “Trivia Quest” show and mobile app games.
More streaming services and companies should cater to audiences who strive for fun ways to find new content.
Comment