Amazon is introducing a new Prime Video interface that will be popular with anyone who has used Netflix, or otherwise any other modern streaming service. To make the Prime Video experience “busy and overwhelming,” the company has positioned the platform’s main navigation bar on the left side of the screen and arranged the icons in a vertical column. From top to bottom, the six menus are Search, Home, Store, Live TV, Free, and My Stuff.
Most menus have subcategories to make navigation easier. For example, the Home section has subcategories of movies, TV shows, and sports. Other Netflix-inspired features include a list of popular content and poster-style thumbnails that expand to play a preview when you browse them.
However, the most helpful change that Amazon has introduced is a new set of icons that make it easier to know if it’s something in Prime Video. A blue mark means that the TV show or movie you want to watch is included in your subscription. Conversely, a gold shopping bag means you have to buy or rent content to see it.
According to The Verge, Amazon spent 18 months working on the redesign. Ben Smith, vice president of products for Prime Video and Prime Studios, led the project. Notably, he previously worked on Hulu’s 2017 redesign. This effort allowed the service to try something completely different to return to a more popular design a few years later.
There are also new miniature portrait-style portraits that unfold as you navigate them.
Amazon Prime Video will begin rolling out the new experience starting this week. The redesign will first reach compatible Android and streaming devices (including Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV) before landing on iOS and the network earlier this year.
The new experience won’t be extended to all available Prime Video devices, and notable failures include the third-generation Apple TV and Sony’s PlayStation 3. If you watch one of them in Prime Video, you won’t. as a result, you will lose access to the service – you will have to exit without updating the interface.
