Customer Reviews (100)

Steph Hess • 2025-10-07T17:44:09.158Z

App won't load on DirecTV device. Worked fine until a couple days ago. Device is Android.

Isai Pitre • 2025-10-07T13:34:41.438Z

Doesnt load.

Tom • 2025-10-07T02:33:04.220Z

the app refuses to load on my TV now. I have cleared the cache, uninstalled the app reinstalled the app nothing seems to work on the Google TV.

Summary of Key Insights

The Hulu for Android TV app is experiencing significant issues, reflected in its overwhelmingly negative reviews. Users are primarily frustrated by frequent crashes, loading errors (especially error 94), buffering problems, and general instability. The app's performance seems to have deteriorated recently, coinciding with a price increase, which has further aggravated users. There are also complaints about missing features like 4K support and channel reordering in the live TV plan. Sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, with 85% of reviews giving the app a 1-star rating.

Key Strengths: Based on the reviews, there are virtually no strengths mentioned. The negative reviews dominate, and positive aspects are absent.

Key Weaknesses: The app suffers from severe stability issues, including frequent crashes, loading errors, buffering, and general unreliability. Users also report missing features and frustration with the app's performance relative to its cost.

Overall Sentiment: Overwhelmingly negative.

Quantitative Metrics:

  • Overall Rating: Very Low (based on score distribution)
  • 1-Star Reviews: 85%
  • 2-Star Reviews: 12%
  • 3-Star Reviews: 3%
  • 4-Star Reviews: 0%
  • 5-Star Reviews: 0%

Data & Methodology Overview

  • Data Sample Size: 100 reviews
  • Time Frame: Not explicitly stated, but the reviews appear recent based on the mentions of recent price increases and sudden app failures.
  • Analysis Methods: The analysis primarily involved manual review and categorization of user feedback to identify recurring themes, sentiment, and pain points. Keyword extraction was used implicitly to identify frequently mentioned issues.

Key User Pain Points

  • Frequent Crashes: The most common complaint is that the app crashes frequently, making it difficult or impossible to watch content.
  • Loading Errors (Error 94): Many users report encountering error 94, preventing the app from loading at all.
  • Buffering Issues: Users experience constant buffering, even with good internet connections.
  • General Instability/Lag: The app is described as laggy, slow to respond, and generally unreliable.
  • App Freezing: The app freezes frequently, often requiring a reset or reinstallation.
  • Content Not Playing/Skipping: Some users report that certain shows or episodes will not play, or that the app skips portions of the content.
  • Commercial Issues: Complaints regarding too many commercials, commercials freezing, and the app not remembering where the user left off after commercials.
  • Price Increase Discontent: Many users express frustration that the app's price has increased despite its poor performance.
  • Lack of 4K Support: Users are disappointed by the absence of 4K support on Android TV.
  • Live TV Issues: Users report issues with the live TV guide and channel ordering.
  • Returning to Home Screen: App unexpectedly returns to the home screen during playback.

Frequently Requested Features

  • 4K Support: Users specifically request 4K streaming capability on Android TV devices.
  • Channel Reordering (Live TV): Users want the ability to customize their live TV channel lineup.
  • More Channels (Live TV): Requests for specific channels like MSG or TV One.
  • Bug Fixes and Stability Improvements: Overwhelmingly, users simply want the app to work reliably.

Strengths and Positive Aspects

  • Based on the provided reviews, there are no discernible strengths or positive aspects to highlight. The feedback is overwhelmingly negative, focusing on the app's numerous problems.

Prioritized Action Recommendations

High Priority:

  • Address Crashing and Loading Errors: Investigate and fix the root causes of the frequent crashes and loading errors (especially error 94). This is the most critical issue affecting the user experience.
  • Improve Buffering and Stability: Optimize the app for smoother streaming and reduce buffering times. Address the lag and unresponsiveness issues.
  • Fix Playback Issues: Resolve the problems with content not playing, skipping, or freezing.

Medium Priority:

  • Optimize Commercial Breaks: Improve the commercial experience by reducing the frequency of interruptions, ensuring smooth transitions, and remembering playback position.
  • Implement 4K Support: Add 4K streaming capability to meet user expectations and remain competitive.
  • Enhance Live TV Functionality: Allow users to reorder channels and address any guide-related issues.

Low Priority:

  • Address UI/UX Issues: While not explicitly mentioned as a major pain point, improvements to the user interface could enhance the overall experience once the core stability issues are resolved.

Opportunities for Startup Ideas

  • Android TV Streaming App Diagnostic Tool: A tool that analyzes the Android TV environment, identifies potential conflicts with streaming apps, and suggests solutions. This could help users troubleshoot issues with Hulu and other streaming services.
  • AI-Powered Streaming Optimization Service: A service that uses AI to dynamically adjust streaming quality based on network conditions and device capabilities, minimizing buffering and ensuring a smooth viewing experience. This could be offered as a premium add-on to existing streaming services or as a standalone product.

Trends and Observations

  • Recent Deterioration: Many users indicate that the app's performance has worsened recently.
  • Google TV/Android TV Specific Issues: A significant number of complaints are specific to Google TV and Android TV devices, suggesting platform-specific problems.
  • Price Increase Impact: The recent price increase has amplified user frustration with the app's poor performance.
  • Political Commentary: A small subset of reviews includes politically motivated complaints, which are outliers but should be noted for potential brand perception analysis.

Conclusion

The Hulu for Android TV app is in a critical state, with widespread performance issues and overwhelmingly negative user feedback. Addressing the crashing, loading errors, and buffering problems should be the top priority. Failure to address these issues will likely lead to further subscriber churn. A complete overhaul of the app's stability and performance is necessary to regain user trust and justify the subscription price.

Overall Recommendation: Hulu needs to prioritize immediate and significant improvements to the Android TV app's stability and performance. A comprehensive bug fix and optimization effort is crucial to prevent further user dissatisfaction and cancellations.

Original App Link

https://play.google.com/work/apps/details?id=com.hulu.livingroomplus