Summary
Disney+ is great to get your latest Star Wars or Marvel fix, but the House of Mouse’s streaming service hasn’t innovated much since its launch in 2019. With such competition for our attention, Disney can’t afford to rest on its laurels.
1Stream More Classic Disney Content
Disney has existed for over a century and in that time has produced some undisputed classics:Cinderella,The Lion King, andFrozento name but a few. While these popular flicks are all available to stream on Disney+, there are many hundreds of movies and shows from the company’s archives that are missing (including from studios it has consumed).
Movies likeThe Brave Little Toaster,Tower Of Terror, andDragonslayeraren’t to be seen, nor are shows likeBuzz Lightyear of Star Command,Mickey Mouse Works, andAladdin: The Series.
That’s not to mention shows likeWillowandThe Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, which debuted as Disney+ exclusives and wereremoved with dozens of others as part of a cost-saving exercise.
2Resurrect GroupWatch
While those onApple devices can still use SharePlay, GroupWatch supported all devices you could stream Disney+ on, and didn’t require any third-party tool.
Disney said it removed GroupWatch because of the meaningless reason that it’s “always working to deliver the best product experience on Disney+.” When it’s not possible to gather everyone in the same room, GroupWatch is sorely missed.
3Rework the Continue Watching Row
Have you ever started watching something, decided it’s not for you, and then found it sticks around in your Continue Watching row for seemingly ever? Or even that shows and movies you did watch all the way through randomly reappear? You’re not alone.
The problem is, Disney+ has no easy way to remove something from Continue Watching. You have to skip near the end of the movie or the show’s last ever episode, let it play for a bit, and then hope it disappears—a tedious and unreliable method. All it needs is a simple “Remove from row” button like Netflix.
And would it be too much to ask to keep the row pinned to the top for quick access, rather than buried beneath others? Moving it around presumably helps push you into watching something new, but it’s inconvenient.
4Add More Search Filters
If you know exactly what you’re looking for on Disney+, it’s easy to find. You can search by title, character, genre, and actor. There are even curated collections, like “Adult Animation” and “Animals and Nature.”
This is all great, but it could be better. For example, you can’t search by release year, duration, or age rating. If you want to combine parameters, like to find only TV shows with Mickey Mouse in, you can’t do that either. The best you can do is go to the movies or series page and filter by genre, with no further search functionality.
5Stop Releasing Episodes Weekly
Instead, it’d be great if Disney+ released all episodes at once, and then it’s entirely up to you how you watch. In fairness, this does happen for some shows likeEchoandRenegade Nell, but others likeLokiandThe Mandalorianare firmly weekly affairs.
6Rely Less on Star Wars and Marvel
Star Wars and Marvel are billion dollar franchises, so it makes sense that Disney would want to milk them for all they’re worth. Much of Disney+’s original scripted offerings are based around these properties, and I’ve certainly enjoyed shows likeAndorandX-Men ‘97.
Nevertheless, Disney has a wealth of other licenses to mine—let’s see some more original programming based on these, or even entirely brand-new worlds.
This is less of a concern outside the US, where regions benefit from the Star brand for no additional cost (featuring the likes ofThe BearandOnly Murders in the Building). In the US, that content lives on Hulu. While you cancombine Disney+ and Hulu in a single app, that comes at a premium as you need to pay for a bundle containing the two services.
