Google mixed things up a bit this week as all of the biggest app updates turned up on Monday, leaving mostly bug fixes and minor tweaks to roll out on Wednesday. We didn't get to see anything exciting from the likes of Keep, Gmail, or most of the other updates, but Play Movies & TV came packing at least one extra. True TV fans will be able to binge watch an uninterrupted stream of episodes from their favorite shows.
Disclaimer: Teardowns are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete evidence. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. There is always a chance that details may change or plans may be cancelled prior to the launch of a new feature discovered in a teardown. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced.
Binge Watching TV
For the uninitiated, bingeing on a television show means watching one episode after another long into the night, usually at the expense of sleep. Yep, it's pretty great.
If you've ever watched a series on Netflix, you already know there's a handy feature that makes binge watching completely effortless. Episodes automatically progress from one to the next, until you reach the end. That same feature is coming to Google Play Movies & TV.
The most important part of the evidence isn't what the strings look like, but what they are named. There are two new strings that begin with "binge watch" that leave little room for interpretation.
<string name="binge_watch_up_next">Up next</string>
<string name="binge_watch_next_episode">Ep%1$s. %2$s</string>
There is also a new layout by the name of binge_watch_card. It will appear as a card that slides into view as an episode is finishing up. There will be a thumbnail either from the episode or the series cover. On the left side will be the words "Up next" with the episode number and title directly below in the form of "Ep1. Pilot". A countdown timer will be located on the right side with the seconds remaining until the next episode begins.
The interface is pretty simple, and everything should look exactly like you would expect it to. There's very little else to say about this feature since it's so simple. The only real question is when we'll be able to see it in action. There is a lot of new code to support this continuous watching feature, and it looks like it could already be complete. Google may be waiting to enable it server-side, or we may have to wait for a future version, but it looks like this is coming really soon.
Until Binge mode is officially enabled, this version of Movies & TV appears to be limited to just a few bug fixes. If you'd like to get your hands on it right away, there is a download link below.
Download
The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.
File Name: com.google.android.videos-3.8.7-38071-minAPI14.apk
Version: 3.8.7 (38071)
MD5: db57a756fd530d3e0e8f4fe26020b576
Alternate Title: Google Play Movies & TV Enters Deathmatch With Google Fit, Builds Army Of Couch Potatoes By Binge Watching Seasons Of Archer