Overview
- HBO Max introduced two mobile features: a vertical, scrollable feed called HBO Max Shorts that shows re‑formatted clips, and Ask HBO Max, a natural‑language conversational search.
- The clips for Shorts are identified by an in‑house machine‑learning tool that analyzes scene‑level metadata and then passes top suggestions to human editors for final selection and vertical formatting.
- Users can access Shorts from a new bottom‑nav icon, see personalized clips based on watch history, jump into the full show or movie from a clip, or add titles to My List directly from the feed.
- The company began limited U.S. tests for the features, with Shorts available to select iOS users and Ask HBO Max rolling out to adult Android users, and Warner Bros. Discovery says both will expand and be refined over time.
- The move follows a wider industry trend—Netflix, Disney+, and Peacock offer similar vertical feeds—and raises questions about how prestige programming will be repackaged for short‑form, attention‑first mobile viewing.