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WarnerMedia, and its parent company AT&T, is not the best with branding. There were once three individual HBO apps, each catering to a specific use case, but now the company is attempting to consolidate them across all platforms.
As of a few weeks ago, we were looking at three separate apps. HBO Now was for the online monthly subscription service, HBO Go was for watching HBO subscriptions with your cable TV login, and HBO Max was the rebranded version of HBO Go with more content. Not complicated at all, right?
On most platforms, including Android, the HBO Now app was simply rebranded to HBO Max. However, WarnerMedia hasn’t yet finalized deals to bring the new Max catalog to Roku or Amazon streaming devices, so the HBO Now app on those platforms is being renamed to just ‘HBO.’ WarnerMedia told The Verge that the branding switch will roll out over the coming months.
At the same time, the HBO Go app is being retired, and anyone with an HBO subscription from their cable provider will simply be able to log into the HBO Max app. HBO Max already works with most major cable and satellite TV providers, but presumably, WarnerMedia will wait until all providers work with HBO Max before shutting down the old app.
In summary, HBO Now is now just HBO Max (except on Roku and Amazon devices, for the time being), and HBO Go users can just log into the Max app. While the old Go app is still working for the time being, HBO has informed users that it will no longer be available as of July 31, giving them until the end of the month to make the transition. Still a bit confusing, but much better than having duplicate applications.
