HBO GO: Stream with TV Package Reviews

To be honest I’m not sure which action fixed my issue below after the update rendered my app unusable, but between deleting then reinstalling HBOGO , then restarting the my phone after that didn’t quite work. HBOGO started to work post update. But it did not work when just restarting the phone after the update so I can only think that the combination of both deletion/reinstallation, and the restart combined triggered operation 🤷🏾‍♂️. All is right with the world for now. Stars upgrade to 4... -1 because I like total solutions and an unknown variable doesn’t sit well with me. I prefer knowing exactly what the cause and action of correction really was...

I was forced to update as HBOGO said update required and would not open. Updated in HBOGO Store and now HBOGO starts to open when selected then closes out immediately back to my phone’s home screen where I selected HBOGO . I am mostly away from home so this is how I watch HBO while my family who lives at the house can enjoy the traditional way. But I got it for me mostly. I Might as well cancel the HBO altogether if I can’t watch it. I’m the one who watches it the most...

Updated again 5/5/19: my iPad did not recognize Charter/Spectrum as my provider. I signed out of Charter on my iPad then signed back in under Spectrum and now the HBO Go app works. That may help others who are having the same problem.

Updated 5/4/19: I tried the steps to get in to this app from the link as the representative said below and still can not get in to HBOGO . It still shows three blinking dots but nothing else, then times out after entering Spectrum as my provider in the log in screen. I also contacted HBO with my information as the representative asked. Still not a happy customer. If something works so I can get in, I will change my 1 star rating for the HBO app. I really do not want to leave such a horrible review and hope HBO does whatever is necessary to make me a happy customer once again.

HBO Go used to work on my iPad in the past but now it does not recognize Spectrum when I try to log in. I am paying for HBO but am not getting all of what I am paying for. What gives?

**Updated** AT&T has fixed this issue for me and others but the process was unpleasant and took many weeks. I have updated the rating from 1 star to 3 stars. I love HBO content but HBOGO is primitive and needs to be updated with Siri/voice support and easier navigation. HBO should look to Netflix for a truly enjoyable app navigation experience. If the this app app improves significantly, then I will gladly update the rating to 5 stars.

**Previously** I can’t even login using my AT&T WatchTV credentials. All it says is “Oops Something Went Wrong!” when trying to login. I’ve cleared cache, deleted HBOGO , restarted the device. Nope. Nothing. Same stupid something went wrong response. This happens on my iPhone, iPad, and AppleTV. AT&T owns both AT&T WatchTV and HBO, tons of users complaining since last month, and we still can’t login. this app support rudely told me they can’t replicate the issue, but there are AT&T forums filled with user complaints. Ridiculous.

For starters HBOGO works great and as intended their are some needs for improvements such for quality of life but overall achieved its purpose.

The insane part are all the negative reviews many of which have nothing to do with HBO but rather their cable provider, phone company, or not knowing the difference between go and now. I also saw some reviews where people rated it 2 stars because it doesn’t have a auto play next episode button, are we really living in a world where not enabling an unhealthy habit of binge watching is considered a bad product. I suggest reading the full review rather just the title when you see these reviews to ensure it’s a customer with a real complaint or someone who never had to live without Netflix.

Update: Today this app is working on all my streaming devices. I am giving it 3 stars until I can further test it out. I hope everyone else is having the same experience.

First, I am tired of having my review deleted without any explanation. No profanity just truth. The truth is since AT* took over Directv, Directv Now and HBO everything has gone downhill.

Second, After several tech calls to Directv they verified there is a problem with HBO Go. Apparently it is a global problem as people with other services have the same issue.

Third, This is not a standalone IPAD app problem, it's the same on my Roku and even the Directv mobile App. In others words, across all my streaming devices.

Fourth, what steps have you laid out in these reviews? Explain what it's.bo/Go-Apple-iOS or any of the other nonsensical strings you put in reviews are. Are we to guess how one would use this? It's not a link or anything you can use in the Safari browser. It feels like a nonstarter to me that is a diversion from really offering any real help. There is not even a customer phone number for HBO. Even Directv was stunned by this.

Fifth, there is no good faith offer from HBO to offer a money back resolution or even a free month until it's sorted out. Thanks for ruining another service AT*.

On HBO go it needs help a lot of problems. Like choose the provider icon in front of the screen. And show many more movies and series of shows. And HBO go has to work better so “PEOPLE” might like HBOGO . On the provider it doesn't show all the names of providers is not shown. When they want to troubleshoot the problem. The webpages are unsecured the website shows it ( on the web address it has a lock telling the website is secured). So thats how HBO go troubleshoot is messed up. The great or good movies like South Park, bigger, longer, and uncut and the series The Sopranos. People would like to see them, so people used the search button. People typed their name of the show it doesn’t show up. Realize HBO go has many shows. HBOGO doesn’t show up the shows. Whats better, buy movie(s) or buy the series of the show or buy the subscription of HBO go? What the heck, is HBO go prejudice to shows? If they are prejudice to shows on HBO go then don't show HBOGO anymore.

It is now impossible to be able to read about any particular movie or show. There are only descriptions for a select few HBO originals otherwise whenever you click on a graphic for a movie or show it automatically started.

HBO, I hope your development team is reading this carefully because I have spoken to for other people that I know and every single one hates the fact that one cannot read what the show is about before watching it.

None of us want to invest hours of our lives into a show that we have zero clue about besides whatever image you’ve chosen to represent it. Fix this ASAP or I at least know three or four lost subscriptions coming your way. Now that Game of Thrones is over you should really be trying to make the user experience as great as possible because we all have less of a reason to keep the service.

You have to search for the show you want to watch every single time you want to watch a new episode. Every single time you want to go to the next episode or keep watching something on your watchlist, you have to specifically search for it. It’s difficult to fast forward or rewind because it only lets you do it in increments of 10 seconds. It’s nothing like Netflix in terms of ease of use and convenience. It settles for “good enough” and “that’s not my job” and you are instantly reminded why Netflix is the industry standard for online streaming. HBOGO is garbage and the only reason I have it is for Game of Thrones like 75% of the HBO Go population. I’m only writing tho review and rating HBOGO so the developers and HBO themselves may see it and recognize they have some serious work to do. Take pride in what you make.

Whenever I pick a show, which is frustrating enough to navigate to, I am unable to slide down to the next episode without going across the season selection bar, which automatically changes the season to whatever the selection is hovering on.

If I’m watching season five of a show for example, scrolling down to pick S5E2 always triggers season 1 episodes and I have to manually pick the season 5 again to pick an episode. There is no way that I can tell to quickly swipe past it without triggering it. This should be a required click at least.

The same auto-click on hover behavior is all over HBOGO and is beyond frustrating considering how tediously sensitive the swipe input is on the Apple remote.

Blech... It is barely tolerable to have to wade through such an unpleasant user experience in order to watch my favorite programming through this dreadful app. On a brand new iPad in high speed internet, it’s sloppy and glitchy. Screens hang on transitions and videos drop out to “video could not be loaded” messages halfway through watching a program. After a transition to a new page, the moving banner at the top instantly jumps away upon page load, so when you see something loading and go to tap it, it inevitably skips to the next item right as you go to hit it. It’s fiiiine, but boy is there room for UI improvement.

Half the time HBOGO does not work... it either stays black and doesn’t load on my phone or glitches and exits out of HBOGO entirely. Then to try and watch a video is another frustrating venture. Sometimes it works and lets you watch a few episodes in a row without interruption. But most of the time I have to open up HBOGO and restart everything just to try and get everything to load. Get better technology people HBO. I mean seriously you think you’d already have it with a 2 star rating... to have to pay extra for the service in the first place is ridiculous for it not to be working seamlessly.

Since transition to my new 5th gen iPad with new app version, I can almost never stream any content unless I have already started the video on my TV with my older Roku. I’ve been back and forth with HBO GO support numerous times. Tried their generic restart/reinstall cure-all to no avail. Then they decided to blame my 3mbs internet connection. Okay, sorry I can’t get anything better where I live, but then why can I stream reliably via Roku? Why does video stream to my iPad flawlessly once it’s been started on the Roku? When I posed this question, that’s when support stopped emailing with me. Something’s wrong with HBOGO , the video formats, or the interface with the iPad OS, but they seem actively trying not to acknowledge it.

It’s not like HBO doesn’t know this is the case - in trying to make themselves about the content as opposed to being Netflix they’ve slacked hard on the interface. Forget curated content, they need to focus on updating this so it’s not glitchy/slow/unresponsive/poor when working. At this point the cost benefit of watching HBO over other places turns on the quality of the service not the content. It’s sad too because it’s another case where HBO has fallen behind resting on its own content laurels unable to see that access to and means of watching is more important - prime example of a company that went after top grads and candidates for their content group and then just filled hired the first resumes in on the UI team

I have had HBOGO for quite some time and have been using it without any issue. I have been very happy with it.
Now all of a sudden I cannot watch anything. When I try to watch something it prompts me to log in - that’s fine, I have no problem with that. But when I log in to my cable provider, I’m prompted to add HBO to my subscription, but I already have it. I even tried selecting the option to add HBO to my plan, but then I get the message that I already have it and to open HBOGO . I go back to HBOGO and the cycle starts all over again. I tried deleting HBOGO and reinstalling it, but with no luck. Very frustrated. 😡
I love so many of HBO’s original series, but maybe it’s time to pull the plug.