Younify, a free streaming aggregator app from the creators of streaming video recorder PlayOn, is planning to add new features including smart TV apps, as it works to ease content discovery.
Younify TV began rolling out in the summer of 2023 and offers a Universal Streaming TV Guide (USG), which aggregates the top 10 streaming services including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Max, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Discovery+ and Showtime.
To ease content discovery and help consumers remember what they were watching or which platform to find titles on, Younify TV consolidates individual Watchlist, Continue Watching, Recommended, Trending and Popular, and Critically Acclaimed categories from leading SVODs into one app. It provides a single consolidated view of any program on a consumer’s list for any of the streaming services. It also simplifies search, allowing viewers to look for titles across all of their streaming service within a single box, with results listed alongside which service they can be found on.
Users can choice to browse by single platform or across all of them, linking their streaming services to a Younify account using their individual information. It also supports playback, with a Watch Now button that fires up viewing.
Although Younify is currently only available as a free mobile app through Google Play and the App Store, within the next 6-12 months it plans additional features, including the launch of apps on connected TV devices. Features under development include the ability to “cast” a video directly from the mobile app to CTV devices and availability of smart TV versions of the app for Fire TV and Android/Google TV. It’s also introducing the ability for consumers to manage, including add and remove, all of their streaming service watchlists from within Younify.
Notably, for the first time, users will be able to receive platform-agnostic recommendations, based on consumers’ personal viewing preferences and behaviors across streaming services. And soon the app will incorporate leading free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels into supported services.
“The number of entertainment choices has grown exponentially (or perhaps because of this growth). It is extraordinary that finding something to watch is such a frustrating experience at a time when some of the best TV shows and movies ever are being created,” said Tracy Burman, COO and co-founder of Younify TV parent MediaMall Technologies. “We created Younify to be a simple and free solution for anyone who, like us, too often struggles while scrolling through a wall of tiles, or simply can’t remember what shows they are watching, what episode they are up to, or even what streaming platform it can be found on.”
To that point, data from Nielsen’s Gracenote found it takes users an average of 10 minutes to sift through content and land on something to watch – with 20% giving up their TV search altogether to do something else. That comes on the back of content growth, with the number of individual titles available on streaming globally swelling from over 1.68 million in 2021 to more than 2.3 million in 2023.
And Younify doesn’t just have consumer ambitions, but B2B aims as well. Through its USG technology, the company said Younify TV will be able to become a major provider “of robust, highly accurate and unbiased aggregated third-party user data” as well as catalog and advertising data “in an industry where studios and Hollywood unions crave accurate streaming metrics.” The company would like to license its Younify TV technology to other leading USG providers.
“Content discovery continues to be a major issue that is causing unnecessary friction not only for consumers, but also for streaming services that are losing subscribers as viewers churn away, sometimes because they don’t fully realize the breadth of content available on each service,” said Jeff Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of MediaMall Technologies, in a statement. “We are confident that with Younify, we will again help move the streaming industry forward in a positive way for everyone.”