Roku has shared its plans for its next update, and it’s adding even more stuff to the company’s home screen.
To start, the company is adding two new ‘Top 10’ rows to the home page. The first will showcase the most popular movies that people are watching on the service, and the second showcases TV series.
The ‘New and Popular’ sections are getting a new sub-category showing movies playing in theatres. This is handy since many people don’t know what’s playing now, but I do worry that it will ultimately add more clutter. When you click on an upcoming movie, it will show you a trailer and let you add it to your Roku watchlist.
The final update is called ‘Surf Mode’ and will provide you with short clips from shows and movies you can watch on the Roku Channel for free. This platform is supposed to learn from what you watch on the app over time and tailor Surf Mode to your preferences.
These updates are rolling out in the coming weeks. However, as I mentioned in my recent review of the Roku Streaming Stick Plus, all these added features take away from the simplicity that made Roku great in the first place. I get that some people might want more recommendations, but across Google TV, Fire TV, and now Roku, I’ve never found them compelling enough to pay attention to.
When I can, I usually try to turn extra features like these off. With a smart TV, I just want quick access to my apps and my inputs so I can easily switch to my consoles.
What remains to be seen is whether this move makes Roku more or less popular. I would recommend Roku devices to people simply because they used to be super easy to use, and the remote was also straightforward. As the company adds more and more things and categories to the home page, it’s becoming harder to use, which in turn makes it harder for me to recommend.
Source: Roku
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