I cut the cord last year. It\u2019s a story for another time, but the bottom line is that I ended up ditching my traditional pay TV service and switching to a streaming service. Live TV is often on in my household, but really only for background noise. When we want to actually watch something on TV, we either stream it or watch something that had been recorded on our DVR. It\u2019s the DVR feature that I ended up missing most, however. Sure there are streaming services that offer a virtual DVR feature, but I ended up cancelling the pricey live TV portion of my service because, once again, no one in my house really watches live TV. Why should I pay $40+ a month just for a virtual DVR when I can stream episodes of all the shows I watch on demand anyway? The key, of course, is keeping track of all the shows I watch so that I know when new episodes are available to stream.<\/p>\n
I spent a lot of time looking for an app that could be my one-stop-shop for this. Just a single repository where I could add all my favorite shows and keep track of them when new episodes air. Following WWDC 2019 last summer, I thought Apple\u2019s redesigned TV app might be exactly what I was looking for. Sadly, it wasn\u2019t. I did finally land on a great free app that does almost exactly what I want, but now it looks like there\u2019s an even better option in the works.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in the same boat as I am and you\u2019re looking for a great app to track all your shows, I landed on Hobi. It\u2019s simple, it\u2019s sleek, it\u2019s fast, and best of all, it\u2019s free. For me, however, it\u2019s not perfect. \u201cPerfect\u201d would be a similar service that lives among apps I already use, rather than relying on yet another service that could vanish at any time. And as long-time readers know, I\u2019m a huge fan of Google\u2019s services.<\/p>\n I use Chrome as a web browser. I use Gmail for my work email as well as my personal email. I use Google so much on my iPhone that I never even open Apple\u2019s Safari browser. Instead, I use the Google app to perform all searches and for the rest of my mobile web browsing as well. Google\u2019s services are simple, well-designed, and they\u2019re free since Google is an advertising company first and foremost. People have strong opinions on Google\u2019s business model, but here\u2019s mine: If Google wants to collect my data so it can serve me targeted ads while offering fantastic personalized experiences that would be impossible otherwise, I\u2019m all for it.<\/p>\n With that in mind, you can imagine how pleased I was recently to learn that Google is building its own TV show tracking service. Not only that, but it\u2019s building the service right into something that I already use dozens of times each day\u2026 Google Search!<\/p>\n The screenshots above were posted recently by 9to5Google<\/em>, and they show a new feature that is rolling out to all users. It\u2019s called Watchlist, and it\u2019s a wonderfully simple way to keep track of all the shows you watch. Once you add a show to your Watchlist, here\u2019s what you\u2019ll see:<\/p>\n As you can also see, movies can be added to your Google Watchlist as well, not just TV shows. This is a feature I\u2019ve wanted in Hobi ever since I started using it \u2014 there are so many movies on my list that aren\u2019t worth seeing in theaters, but I often forget about them by the time they finally make it to streaming services.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s new Watchlist feature is still in its infancy. For the time being, it\u2019s only available on mobile devices and there\u2019s no dedicated app. If you want to see what\u2019s on your Watchlist, you can access it by searching \u201cmy watchlist\u201d on your device or on the Collections tab in the Google app. If it picks up steam \u2014 and I hope that it will \u2014 I can definitely see Google adding features like Google Assistant integration with optional new episode notifications and more. Even in its current state though, it\u2019s already a useful tool for anyone who has cut the cord or who wants to keep track of all the movies, TV shows, and streaming shows he or she watches in a single spot.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Google-Search-just-got-a-brilliant-new-feature-I\u2019ve-wanted.png\")
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