There’s more to watch than ever before, but perhaps you still find yourself idly flicking through the “What’s New” carousel on Netflix and not seeing anything that really grabs you … so then you do the same for Prime Video and Disney+ too.
The reality is that there’s so much on each one of these streaming services that we can never hope to get through the whole lot. The fix is to be a little more targeted in curating your viewing queue. By spending more time finding the stuff you actually like, you can spend less time cycling through the thumbnails.
There are apps and sites that can help here, cataloging everything that’s currently available on your streaming platforms of choice. There are a number to pick from, but these are four of the best options.
JustWatch
JustWatch aims to provide a comprehensive listings service for movies, shows, and sports, and you can find it on the web, on Android, and on iOS. You don’t have to pay or even register an account to use the basic search function, but if you do sign up you can start curating your own watchlists. Paying $2.49 a month, meanwhile, removes the ads from the JustWatch apps, and gives you access to more lists and more filters.
There are two ways to use JustWatch: You can look for something specific that you want to watch, or you can browse around and see what’s available, platform by platform. If you’re taking the former approach, on the web you can simply type the name of a movie or show into the search box at the top of the screen.
When you get a match, you’ll be shown all your viewing options. These are split by streaming platform but also by how much you’ll have to pay (if anything), and whether you can watch them as part of a subscription (like Netflix) or whether you need to buy or rent the title.
Alternatively, just click around JustWatch to see what’s good. Select a specific streaming platform, for example, and you can see what’s new or popular on that service. You can even combine filters to cover all the services you’re signed up for. Click through on any title and you get a host of information about it, as well as options to add it to your JustWatch lists.
Reelgood
Reelgood is similar to JustWatch in a lot of ways, with up-to-date listings for all the big streaming services, and various options for creating your own custom lists of content. It’s all free, with no subscription tier, and you don’t even need to register an account to start searching for titles. You can find Reelgood on the web, on Android, and iOS.
If there’s something specific you’re looking for, you can use the search box at the top of the web interface. When you find a match, you’ll see key information about the movie or show—such as the running time, year of release, or number of episodes—as well as links to streaming services where you can watch it in your part of the world.
As with JustWatch, you get a full range of viewing options: Places where the title can be streamed as part of an existing subscription, as well as platforms where you can pay to rent or buy the movie. In a lot of cases you can click through and start watching right away in your web browser, if you’re signed up to the right service.
There are lots of other browsing options available too, if you’re not so certain what you want to watch. You can see what’s new and what’s popular on each streaming platform, filter the results based on user reviews, release year, and genre, and put together your own curated lists of films and shows you want to watch.
New on Netflix
Besides the general streaming searching sites we’ve already mentioned, you’ll come across listings services dedicated to specific platforms, and there’s no bigger platform than Netflix. New on Netflix is not an official, Netflix-run site, but it offers a comprehensive catalog of everything arriving on and leaving the platform.
This isn’t available for your mobile device, it’s just the website, though you can sign up to get personalized email updates for the movies and shows you’re interested in: You’ll be pinged whenever something you want to watch either turns up on Netflix or is about to be removed (so you’ve got chance to catch it).
Getting around the website is straightforward. The quick menu links at the top will lead you straight to everything that’s new on Netflix in your region, titles that are coming soon on the platform, and to the full Netflix catalog—if you want to, you can see absolutely everything on Netflix in alphabetical order, though you’ll probably want to use one of the genre filter options.
As soon as you load up the site, you get the newest titles shown on screen, and you can click through to everything that’s been added in the current month and during the last month. Every listing comes with information such as release date, cast, running time, and ratings, and you can of course click through to watch the film or movie on Netflix.
Besides the services we’ve already mentioned, Google is better than you might think at helping you find what you watch and where (if you scroll past all the AI-generated text, that is). The search engine is smart enough to realize when you’re looking for a movie or show and will adapt accordingly.
Search for a title and you should see a number of different widgets appear, showing an overview of the film, the cast, its release date, and the average online ratings that it’s been given (which you may or may not want to take any heed of). Look for a Where to watch widget up in the top right corner—click on this and you should see viewing options for the movie or show in your country, with direct links to start streaming.
Further down on the right, look for a Watch film or Watch show box: This will be a more basic widget showing you exactly which streaming platform you can watch the selected title on (click through for the link). Select Edit services to tell Google which streaming services you’re signed up for and get a more personalized response.
In this same box you’ll see a Want to watch button, which you can click to start a basic watchlist that gets synced across Google services (as long as you’re signed into your Google account). You can find the list at any other time by running a Google search for “my watchlist,” and the list also shows up in the Library tab on Google TV.
The post How to Quickly Find Out What’s Streaming on Multiple Services at Once appeared first on Wired.
