Disney+, the biggest initiative and priority in the near future of the iconic company, went live today in the US and Canada. I have been using it for 2-3 hours and below is the summary of my experience so far.
The sign-up is pretty standard and smooth. Nothing major. Even though there was some reported difficulty in finding the app on Apple Store
Fairly expectedly, the app encountered some technical issues which users widely reported here. I have had my fair share as well
That led to Disney+ Help twitter page issued the statement below
In addition to the technical mishaps, I was a bit frustrated by the User Interface. While you can download episodes from the mobile app, I couldn’t find the feature on the browser version. I am not sure if that was intended to limit the downloads, but I was under impression that it was possible.
At the end of a movie, you are presented with a suggestion like the screenshot below, but there is no way to get back to the homepage or the category page
There is an “Extras” tab under the main banner of a movie/episode. They can be never-seen-before clips that viewers will appreciate. However, they could have made the tab more visible or added it to the end, in my opinion
There are some Extras clips on the mobile app that are not available on disneyplus.com.
At the bottom of the website, there is a tab called “Interest-based ads”. On that page, you can choose to opt out of behavioral targeting by ads companies on disneyplus.com
In terms of content, I am excited about National Geographic and Marvel. But to succeed, I do think Disney Plus has quite a long way to go and much to improve if they want to augment user experience
Disclaimer: I own Disney stocks in my personal portfolio
Minh Quang Duong 