Update: I don’t know what happened, but I’m no longer getting the same search results on my phony app that that I get on the Tubi Apple TV app (i.e., shows that I watch all the time on the Apple TV app aren’t showing up on the iPhone/iPad app. That’s a huge problem for road trips. Sadly downgrading to 2-stars until fixed.
Previous review: It’s free, and the content is the best I’ve seen for an app of this type (and did I mention that it’s free?). Unike other developers, they don’t force you into a subscription or even signing up for an account. Because of that, I am always happy to watch every ad that plays during the movies and shows—it’s the least I can do. The only thing I’d suggest (and this does drive me a little crazy when it happens): sometimes I’ll be watching a movie and multitasking with work, stuff around the house, etc. I come back to find that the movie I started watching has ended and a new one has begun, and the new movie looks pretty darned interesting! Only one problem: there is literally no way to see what the name of the new movie. There’s no history feature. If you exit out of the unnamed movie, it returns you to the original movie page where you first started watching, with no way of getting back to the movie that was just playing. If you try to access controls, it only gives you setting options like audio and video and CC. After learning this the hard way a couple times and losing movies that I might have wanted to watch at a later time, I’ve had to adjust with the workaround of waiting for the characters to call each other by name and search for those character names on IMDB or in DuckDuckGo. Not an ideal solution. If you could just make it so that swiping up or down will show us the name of the movie CURRENTLY playing, that would be outstanding. Even with that, you’re still getting 5-stars because you deserve them for the way you do business.
I have only ever written one other review in my life so I don’t normally take the time to write reviews. I wanted to in this case because Tubi has been an amazing experience for me. I already have Netflix and Prime and I still enjoy those on occasion but Tubi has been my go-to streaming service lately. I’m in a unique situation in that I have some medical issues right now which result in me watching or really listening to a lot of audiobooks, comedians, documentaries etc as I work on healing. I’ve already listened to many of the comedians and documentaries on Netflix and Prime and Tubi has been a resource for more content. But it goes further than just providing more content in general. What I love about it is the variety and the sheer volume of choices. To me it offers much more variety than Netflix and Prime. Keep in mind I’m the type to appreciate obscure documentaries or even a throwback show from time to time as opposed to watching the latest and most famous shows on Netflix. In fact I feel nostalgic about the old days of Netflix when what you found on there was much more random. I discovered some great shows and movies back then which I would otherwise not have been aware of such as an old comedy show with High Laurie and Stephen Fry. I’m also a sucker for cheesy romance movies that are generally on the comedic side and Tubi has no shortage of those as well so that comes in handy. In fact I have a subscription to Hallmark Movies Now and I’m considering canceling it because I find more of what I want to watch or listen to on Tubi. Plus the app itself seems to run better overall. It runs better than Hallmark Movies Now and Freevee hands down in terms of freezing etc. I’d say it works as well as Netflix and Prime work on my device. My sister happened to mention Tubi a few months ago and I’m so glad she did.
I really do enjoy the content Tubi brings, especially old 50’s to 80’s horror movies. There are even old cartoons and 90’s family movies I haven’t seen since my childhood! And it brings so much nostalgia.
There are a whole lot of titles that I have never seen or heard of before. I really even look up the same titles on Wikipedia lol. Yes, the ads can be weary. But hey, this app is free for a reason. One of the things I like about Tubi is that while watching something, the ads will run only once, and if you want to rewind or go back to a certain part, you won’t have to see the ads again unlike Pluto TV. I’m a rewatch/rewind part-a-lot (you get what I’m saying? X’DD)person, and it’s annoying that you have to watch the commercials over again and try to find the place where you were last on Pluto. So yeah, I enjoy this app better. I pick something to just play in the background while I work on something.
As the title says, Tubi is GREAT for free movies/tv shows. Obviously the ads are a BIT much to deal with but for free you can’t really complain that much, Tubi has operation costs so they’ve got to get their money from somewhere. I wish there was LESS ADS but like I said, I get it. My only REAL issue is that I can’t leave the main window and do other things on my phone while watching content on a smaller/minimized window. If you could build in that feature, I’m sure it would bring more people in wanting to use the app more. The main big name “streaming apps” that are the biggest competitors for Tubi all have that feature and most people LOVE it because many of us are multi-task people. Other than my one SEMI complaint, I have nothing but good things to say. Thanks for providing content for free Tubi, you are a DIAMOND on a huge pile of cubic zirconium.
I find the service provided by Tubi to be excellent. However, in the interest of continuing improvement, I have found the following matters:
1. Improve selections - some of the movies are from foreign sources. There have been times when absolute delight was found, such as “Ragnorock,Andromeda strain, firefly, and the V TV Series.” But, as noted above some of these movies are obscure in origin and the quality is not as good as what I would like.
2. The Controls are not as good as they should be. Often when I hit pause, it would pause for a second and then start again on its own.
Overall, the experience has been superb except for the few “hiccups” as noted above. I am very grateful that you provide this service for free.
Could you please fix the captions that come on after every commercial?
Nice to get some shows I can’t get anywhere, and for the most part, the app functions well except for the captions on my iPad. They come on after every commercial, and I have to turn them off every time during the duration of the shows. Sorry to have to give you a low rating. It’s really getting annoying with the random captioning. Maybe a fix? Thank you.
Tired of family saying that there going to stop paying your Netflix account, worry no more, with less commercials than other competitors, don’t confuse Tubby with Tubi! Hablamos Espanol, for a limited timed first 10,000 customers receive the joy of being free of the Netflix grip, put wait, load it on your PC, tablets, TVs
Richard Alvarez
Senior Manager of 70 ways of Saving
I was looking for an app to watch my favorite old scary movies on since October is coming up and I didn’t really find anything besides apps that you had to pay until Tubi. They have everything and I can really get my Halloween fix on! The only thing is sometimes movies will only be up for a certain period of time and there is ads/commercials but no biggie!
Nice to get some shows I can’t get anywhere, and for the most part, the app functions well except for the captions on my iPad. They come on after every commercial, and I have to turn them off every time during the duration of the shows. Sorry to have to give you a low rating. It’s really getting annoying with the random captioning. Maybe a fix? Thank you.
I have been watching a horror movie a day, mostly from a book of that name. I am trying to find the movies free or close to it. I have had movies stop streaming with other services (for no apparent reason), but with tubi my movies continue to play..I have had no issues streaming (at home and on the road). Highly recommend this service !