New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on April 30, 2021) follows:
Due to the ongoing global crisis, we find ourselves indoors for longer and longer, and with that comes the need to consume even more content.
Online streaming services have seen a lot of increase in users over the past year or so and the same is probably set to continue for a while.
HBO Max is a pretty popular video streaming site for millions of users across the globe. These users use various devices to access HBO Max and increasingly, we see mobile devices being used due to their portability.
It is coming to light that a recent update to the HBO Max app on iOS has disabled a pretty important feature to a number of its users.
The zoom feature is important for users that would like to tailor their watching experience exactly the way they like it and HBO Max has disabled this feature in a recent update, much to the dismay of users.
Clearly, this change hasn’t gone well for many users who use their mobile devices to consume content on HBO Max as now, they’re stuck using only a section of their displays.
Source
This issue has been brought extensively to the attention of HBO and in response, the company says that this move was made in a bid to offer a more consistent watching experience.
It is clear that whatever ‘consistent watching experience’ HBO was going for with this move isn’t working out for a number of users.
It remains unclear whether the company will revert these changes in an upcoming update so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Even as users of HBO Max on mobile devices complain, users on the web, particularly those using Safari, also have an issue with their experience.
According to users, they now get white bars on either side of the video player on the Safari browser, an eye-sore when watching in dark places.
A scroll through the forums reveals many similar complaints (1,2,3) from users who are dispealesed about these recent changes.
HBO has since come to respond to these user complaints, acknowledging the issue and promising a fix. No timelines have been issued.
It also remains unclear when the HBO Max Safari white bars will be fixed and if the removal of zoom will be addressed as well. That said, we shall continue to keep an eye on these and update as and when we get more info so stay tuned.
Update 1 (May 01, 2021)
IST 01:13 pm: Good news, the issue on Safari has finally been resolved, restarting the browser after updating should bring the fix into effect.
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