HBO Max has introduced two experimental mobile features aimed at the same problem: viewers often know they want to watch something before they know what they want to watch.
HBO Max Shorts lets users swipe through personalized scenes, trailers, and bonus material. Ask HBO Max lets them describe what they’re looking for in natural language. Together, the features give Warner Bros. Discovery two new ways to turn an extensive catalog into actual viewing.
Streaming services have spent years improving recommendation rows, artwork, genre menus, and rankings. Those tools organize the catalog, but they still ask the viewer to do much of the work.
HBO Max is testing two more direct signals: what catches someone’s attention and what they can describe.
A Swipe and a Search Solve Different Forms of Indecision
HBO Max Shorts will initially appear for select U.S. iOS users through a dedicated icon in the bottom navigation menu. The personalized feed draws from viewing history and lets users start the associated series or film immediately or save it to My List. HBO Max plans to expand the feature across more devices and markets, with sports clips eventually joining the feed.
Ask HBO Max begins with select adult users on Android. The feature uses natural-language understanding and semantic search to interpret requests such as “in the mood for a comedy” or “dysfunctional family drama.” It can recommend programming even when the viewer’s wording doesn’t match the title’s existing metadata.
The two features address different viewing situations.
Shorts serves the viewer who doesn’t yet have a clear request. A scene can create interest before the person has chosen a genre, title, or actor.
Ask HBO Max serves the viewer who has a preference but can’t express it through a traditional search box. Someone may know the mood, occasion, pacing, or relationship dynamic they want without knowing which title fits.
One feature responds to attention. The other responds to language.
AI Can Make a Large Catalog Easier to Package
HBO Max Shorts repackages existing programming rather than introducing original vertical series. That keeps the feature focused on discovery and puts the operational challenge inside the catalog itself.
An internal AI tool scans scene-level metadata across thousands of hours of programming and suggests moments that may work as clips. Human editors then choose the scenes that best represent each title and prepare them for vertical viewing.
The system can reduce the amount of manual work required to search through a large library. Editors can spend more time deciding whether a scene sells the title accurately and less time locating every possible candidate.
A machine can flag a recognizable actor, an emotional confrontation, a visual set piece, or a sharp change in tone. An editor still has to decide whether the moment creates the right kind of curiosity.
A strong clip should catch attention while setting an honest expectation for the film or series that follows. A misleading sample may generate a start, but it can also produce a fast exit and give the recommendation system a poor signal.
AI can lower the cost of finding scenes. Editors still determine whether those scenes make the right promise.
Ask HBO Max applies the technology to the viewer rather than the title. Semantic search can translate moods, situations, themes, and loosely expressed preferences into recommendations.
HBO Max is using AI to package its programming and interpret what viewers ask for.
Mobile Discovery Has to Match Mobile Behavior
Most streaming interfaces still reflect the habits of television viewing. They rely on horizontal rows, large artwork, and navigation systems designed for someone who has already decided to sit down and watch.
Phones create a different situation. A user may have a few idle minutes, a vague idea, and no immediate intention of starting a full episode.
HBO Max Shorts gives that person a lightweight way to encounter the catalog. Ask HBO Max removes some of the effort required to translate a preference into searchable terms. Both features borrow behaviors people already use elsewhere on their phones.
The vertical feed has a specific job. It should create enough interest to produce a save, a title-page visit, or a stream.
HBO Max doesn’t need Shorts to become a standalone entertainment destination. It needs the feed to help viewers make better decisions about long-form programming.
That keeps the economics tied to the existing service. Better discovery can generate more viewing sessions, increase use of library programming, and strengthen the value viewers get from the subscription.
Conversational Search Can Expose What Viewers Actually Want
Ask HBO Max can also give Warner Bros. Discovery a more detailed view of audience demand.
Traditional search logs tend to contain titles, actors, franchises, and genres. Natural-language searches can reveal viewing occasions, emotional needs, pacing preferences, content limits, and combinations that don’t fit neatly into standard metadata.
A search for “something funny to watch after a bad day” communicates more than an interest in comedy. A request for “a tense family drama without too much violence” combines tone, genre, subject matter, and a content restriction.
Those requests can improve recommendation design, editorial collections, metadata, promotional language, and audience segmentation.
They can also reveal gaps. If viewers repeatedly ask for something HBO Max can’t recommend well, the problem may sit in the catalog, the metadata, or the way the service packages existing programming.
A weak result doesn’t always mean the title is missing. It may mean HBO Max hasn’t described the title in the language viewers use.
The search box can become a source of audience intelligence.
HBO Max Still Has to Prove These Features Drive Viewing
The initial rollout is limited, but HBO Max can expand the system quickly if the tests work.
The AI-assisted clipping tool can create more inventory. Editors can refine clip selection based on performance. Personalization can determine which scenes reach which viewers. Conversational search can learn which recommendations produce meaningful action.
The important questions are practical.
Did the viewer start a title? Did they save it? Did the feature reduce the time required to choose? Did the session continue after the initial interaction?
Clip views and search activity can help explain behavior, but they aren’t the final outcome. HBO Max still needs to connect each interaction to viewing.
Shorts provides a visual prompt. Ask HBO Max captures an expressed preference. The value of both features depends on whether they produce more successful sessions.
The Streaming Wars Take
Shorts and Ask HBO Max address different forms of indecision, but both aim to move viewers into the catalog faster.
One surfaces programming through visual reaction. The other converts natural language into recommendations. Both give HBO Max more direct signals about what motivates a viewer to act.
Success should show up in lower time-to-play, higher save rates, more title starts, and stronger use of programming HBO Max already owns or licenses.
The internal AI tool also shows how discovery can become a repeatable content operation. Machine learning identifies candidate scenes. Editors decide which moments represent the title accurately. Product teams distribute the clips. Viewer behavior shows which choices deserve wider use.
HBO Max is testing whether a swipe or a sentence can turn catalog depth into viewing faster.
HBO Max is testing whether a swipe or a sentence can make that happen faster.
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