Warner Bros. Reshapes HBO Max Discovery With Vertical Video and AI Search

Adapting to the Short-Form Shift

Warner Bros. announced on Tuesday that HBO Max is adopting a vertical video interface to help subscribers navigate its massive content library. This new feature, accessible via a Shorts icon in the bottom menu, serves a personalized stream of trailers, clips, and bonus material. By analyzing individual watch histories, the platform tailors the feed to match specific user tastes. When a clip resonates, viewers can immediately launch the full title or add it to a saved list.

AI-Driven Content Curation and Search

The streaming giant is employing artificial intelligence to extract the most engaging moments from its catalog. An internal AI tool scans scene-level metadata across thousands of hours of programming, surfacing highlights that human editors then review and approve. Simultaneously, HBO Max is testing a conversational search engine for Android users in the U.S. This tool utilizes natural language understanding to process nuanced queries. Instead of searching by title, users can ask for content based on hyper-specific moods or scenarios, such as:

• Dysfunctional family dramas
• Best movie for a girls night in
• In the mood for a comedy

Industry-Wide Technical Convergence

HBO Max follows competitors like Disney+, Peacock, and Netflix, all of which have integrated vertical video to counter the rising influence of social media discovery patterns. The move also aligns with an industry shift toward AI search assistants; Amazon’s Fire TV already uses voice-activated AI for open-ended inquiries, and Netflix introduced a similar search function last year. Currently, the vertical feed is in a testing phase for select iOS users in the U.S., with plans to scale across more global markets and hardware ecosystems in the future.

Source: Tech Crunch