Roku’s famous cityscape home screen has a new look.
On Wednesday, Roku debuted a new home screen, which it says will reduce friction by offering more relevant recommendations and faster pathways to content.
The new home screen maintains the platform’s simplistic interface, which has become synonymous with its over 100 million streaming households, while helping viewers find their next show more easily as recommendations populate the top of the page.
This is the first significant update of Roku’s home screen in over 10 years, with founder and CEO Anthony Wood saying in a statement that the company listened to the platform’s everyday users and tested extensively until the design and data aligned for a meaningful update.
“Now, our new home screen puts entertainment at the center of everything, while staying true to Roku’s simple, intuitive roots,” Wood added, noting that the redesign opens things up for partners as well.
New features on the home screen include quick access to the most-used apps, which continuously adapt to the viewer’s routine. An intelligence-driven, expanded content-first “Top Picks for You” section also appears, along with a “For You” section built on viewers’ interests.
The new home screen also provides easy search for key destinations with relevant suggestions and results, a collapsible menu, and elevated shortcuts for everyday actions, including saving titles and a continue watching section.
If viewers are on the hunt for the latest breakout shows and cultural trends, the new home screen will offer a “Your Daily Scoop” feature. Finally, for those who have nothing to watch but enjoy keeping the screensaver up, the new home screen includes a Roku City tile feature offering an interactive version of the screensaver.
The new home screen will initially be available to Roku TVs and streaming devices in the U.S., with international expansion coming later in the year.
Roku will also continue providing a home screen ad experience with Super Bowl-sized reach. Last summer, Warner Bros. Discovery had a Superman homescreen takeover ahead of its July premiere.
The campaign featured several new, visible elements across the platform, including search functionality with phrases such as “look up.”
