Earlier this week, Amazon introduced a main redesign of Prime Video, and the overwhelming response was “lastly.” Prime Video had grow to be a relic frozen in time, with an unpleasant, laggy interface that appeared caught in 2010. Amazon’s streaming rivals, in the meantime, have routinely switched up and refined the person expertise.

And it looks like Prime Video’s designers seen. As a result of one other factor that caught out concerning the app’s makeover is simply how carefully Amazon’s video service now resembles Netflix. Column of navigation icons on the left facet? Examine. Prime 10 listing with huge numbers? Yep, it’s there on the house display screen. And Prime Video has even added “tremendous carousels” of poster-style art work that develop to panorama and begin auto-playing a trailer if you hover over them — similar to Netflix.

Primarily based on the feedback on our story and feedback I’ve seen throughout Twitter, Reddit (1, 2, 3), and elsewhere, individuals don’t appear to thoughts the similarities. This interface has regularly grow to be the de facto commonplace throughout Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and now Prime Video. And consistency goes a great distance right here; we’re essentially utilizing all of those companies to succeed in the leisure on every one, and having a samey interface between them ought to make doing so simpler for everybody.

It does pose the chance of confusion, although. You would possibly end up mindlessly scrolling via HBO Max or Paramount Plus if you’re looking for the brand new Lord of The Rings collection on Prime Video.

When corporations have tried to flip the desk and reinvent the streaming app person expertise, it usually hasn’t gone nicely. A number of years in the past, Hulu launched a very overhauled design that was lambasted for prioritizing type over usability; as a substitute of exhibiting you as a lot content material as doable, it highlighted one or two gadgets at a time with full-screen art work and outsized, thin-weight fonts.

Within the months and years that adopted, Hulu dialed again and reversed lots of the extra drastic adjustments and in the end settled on one thing extra acquainted. It hasn’t totally given in and adopted left-side navigation like everybody else fairly but, however all the principle sections are related.

Picture: Hulu

So we’ve clearly settled on the “proper method” to do UX for video streaming apps. However that doesn’t imply all of the complications are solved. In Prime Video’s case, Amazon nonetheless lists seasons of TV exhibits individually. It is a main annoyance for some customers, I’ve discovered, and it’s one which hasn’t modified or improved with the redesign. However the firm is at the very least working to cease displaying a number of variations of the identical film primarily based on video high quality. Because the starting of this yr, Amazon has resolved the 4K / HD cut up for greater than half of the Prime Video catalog and is at the moment making its method via the remainder.

Lots of people would additionally love an choice to completely filter what’s proven in all these content material carousels to every part included with their Prime subscription — and nothing else. However that’s not going to assist Amazon’s backside line with regard to subscriptions and leases / purchases, so don’t rely on it. Amazon insists it’ll collect buyer suggestions and proceed evolving the revamped Prime Video. You may’t name it unique, however at the very least it’s inherently extra usable than earlier than.