How good is the AMC+ user interface?
How good is the AMC+ user interface?
Does AMC+ get high marks from an expert for its interface, or does it need some work?
AMC+ may not have the reputation that some other streaming services have built up, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. The service has an exciting range of content to consider, since it pulls together on-demand shows and movies from the AMC cable channel, BBC America, IFC Films Unlimited, Sundance Now, and Shudder.
Does AMC+ make it easy to unlock all of these brands with its streamer’s user interface? I checked out the user experience on AMC+ on my Fire TV, and I’ll fill you in on the experience I had here. If you’re considering whether or not to sign up for AMC+, this could be the deciding factor in your process.
Is the AMC+ user interface any good?
What is the AMC+ home screen like?
When starting your browsing journey on AMC+, you’ll notice that things on the service are designed to steer you toward its most famous brands. This makes plenty of sense; since AMC+ is a smaller streamer with fewer licensed titles, the company knows it has to keep viewers engaged by getting them hooked on video that’s exclusive to it.
That also leads to fewer choices on the screen overall and larger content tiles as a result. The headlining tile carousel at the top of the screen cycles through all the titles AMC+ wants viewers tuning into the most, and the Continue Watching row comes directly after. I appreciated that, too often, streamers make you scroll through three or four rows to get to the Continue Watching section, and that’s the row I’m most often after when I log into a service.
AMC+’s home page has all the usual suspects when it comes to content rows. It offers standby options like Coming Soon, New Arrivals, Most Popular, etc., and also offers content built off recommendations for its exclusive properties like “The Walking Dead.” You can also scroll down and find the Collections row, which highlights the best titles from the assembled brands on AMC+.
The AMC+ home page does a good job of highlighting the streamer’s brands. Click to expand.
The menu for AMC+ is on the left-hand side of the screen, but it comes with fewer options. Home, Explore, Live, My Stuff, and Settings are the only tabs in the menu, and I was a little surprised to see that it didn’t have categories for TV shows and movies, as most other streamers do.
Overall, the AMC+ home page isn’t spectacularly good or horrifically bad. It’s more or less right down the middle, though it does lose a point or two for not offering more options for browsing in the left-hand menu.
Home page score: 6.75 out of 10
Is content discovery easy on AMC+?
The answer to this question is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I appreciate the thoughtful way that AMC+’s home page organizes content rows to let viewers see curations of content in ways that other streamers don’t, like its Killer Binges: True Crime Stories row.
On the other hand, the AMC+ interface buries the option to search for TV shows and movies manually in its Explore tab, instead of offering a dedicated search icon in the left-screen menu. This is so well hidden that at first, I didn’t see it at all when navigating to the Explore page. For those suffering the same problem, it’s at the top of the page, above the Series, Movies, Collections, and Explore All tabs.
There is at least a row for exploring by content hub, so you can filter out your view to see only titles from Shudder, etc. But not making the search function a little easier to find means AMC+ loses some points on content discovery, to be sure.
Content discovery score: 5 out of 10
Is it easy to move between categories on AMC+?
Not as easy as I’d like. It’s true that AMC+ puts Live content into a dedicated menu tab in the left-hand menu, so you can scroll and quickly find the shows and movies playing on AMC linear channels. But as mentioned above, there are no TV shows or Movies tabs there, and you have to go to the Explore page to sort to those categories.
Once there, moving between content options is easy enough, but the process feels clunky and non-intuitive overall. I think AMC+ could do a much better job of helping viewers jump to a TV show or movie page more easily and with fewer steps.
Category switching score: 6 out of 10
How are AMC+’s playback controls?
The playback controls on AMC+ are more or less the standard experience you’ve come to expect. Of course, viewers get the standard pause, fast-forward, and rewind options, and a menu for subtitle and audio options — not that AMC+ offers a great selection of either of these on most of its titles.
These are pretty bare-bones controls overall. There are no options to browse between episodes or seasons of the show you’re watching using the controls; all they’re really good for is controlling the playback of the title in question. That’s what they’re supposed to do, but they left me wanting a bit more nonetheless.
Playback controls on AMC+ are about as simple as it gets. Click to expand.
I also didn’t like that when fast-forwarding or rewinding, AMC+’s interface doesn’t tell me what speed I’m using to scroll. Pressing the fast-forward or rewind buttons multiple times does make the scrolling go faster, but I’m not made aware of how fast — I just have to watch the progress bar and see where I end up. Interestingly, skipping ahead by pressing the forward button on my remote once jumps 15 seconds on AMC+ instead of the usual 10.
Playback controls score: 4 out of 10
How easy is skipping opening and closing credits on AMC+?
Here’s one area where AMC+ does get high marks. The service’s Skip Intro button comes up right away when the opening titles start, and if you pull up playback controls after missing the initial appearance of the button, it comes back. The Next Episode button similarly comes up quickly and easily, and AMC+ offers a Watch Credits button, as well.
Skipping credits score: 10 out of 10
Conclusion
I had somewhat higher hopes for the AMC+ user interface when I began this review, but sadly, those hopes were more or less dashed. It’s not that the streamer is horrendous; it just doesn’t try to do anything truly innovative, apart from a few content rows that are more unique than those found on other services. Taking the time to clean up the little things would make a world of difference for AMC+, but until it does so, it won’t get as high of marks from me as it potentially could have.
Overall score: 6 out of 10
AMC+
AMC+ is a premium subscription streaming bundle owned by AMC Networks. It offers curated access to award-winning originals, indie films, and prestige television. Launched in June 2020, the service combines content from AMC with flagship brands such as BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited, delivering a rich library of exclusive programming and early episode access.