The buggy HBO Max Apple TV app is getting a complete re-write by year's end

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HBO Max Review 2020
HBO Max Review 2020 (Image credit: Bryan M. Wolfe/iMore)

What you need to know

  • The buggy HBO Max app on Apple TV is set to get a complete overhaul according to an unnamed WarnerMedia executive.
  • The app has been in the news for poor performance and design choices.

The buggy HBO Max app on Apple TV is set to get a complete re-write in an attempt to try and do away with some of the bugs it has been plagued by in recent months.

The HBO Max app found itself in the news recently thanks to an ill-fated decision to remove the native Apple TV media player and replace it with a new, bespoke one. That ultimately broke the app for many users and was only fixed when the native player was reinstated after a huge backlash. Now, an unnamed WarnerMedia executive has told Vulture that a re-write is in the works — and that the remaining audio and subtitle issues should be corrected within the next few days.

"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.

That same Vulture report appears to suggest the issues all originated from HBO Max's app being an offshoot of the original HBO Go and HBO Now apps, while the addition of a new ad-supported tier also caused further complications. All of this should be fixed when a new Apple TV app is created, although fans of Apple's set-top box will still likely need to wait a matter of months before they can take it for a spin.

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Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.