HBO Max is getting into vertical video with a new mobile feed to help subscribers discover content faster.
HBO Max Shorts, which will be available through its own icon in the bottom navigation menu, will allow users to watch trailers, clips and bonus content from their favorite series and films.
Shorts will be customized to individual tastes and preferences based on watch history. The clips are powered by an in-house AI tool, which helps human editors select and create vertical video content using machine learning algorithms that comb through thousands of hours of titles and scene-level metadata.
If a title sparks a user’s interest, they can start watching immediately or add it to “My List” directly from the feed.
The feature is initially being tested with select iOS users in the U.S. and will be rolled out across more devices and markets in the future. It will be refined as users interact with it and incorporate sports content at a later date.
“We’re thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature,” HBO Max’s Senior Vice President of Machine Learning Engineering Deepna Devkar said in a statement.
In addition to Shorts, HBO Max launched an experimental conversational search experience for adult users in the U.S., which is initially rolling out on Android mobile devices and is accessible from the search page under “Ask HBO Max.”
Select subscribers can now search for terms such as “in the mood for a comedy” or “dysfunctional family drama” or “best movie for a girls night in,” to find relevant content. Availability of this feature will be rolled out to more devices and markets at a later date.
