Google Play gets ‘Where to watch’ searches for your next stream

Streaming media was supposed to be the next great evolution in home entertainment, and while in many ways it is, we’ve also seen it introduce nearly as many problems as it’s solved. One of the biggest has simply been keeping track of what’s available where — while some content is locked down tightly to one streaming platform, there’s also a ton of it that’s available across multiple services, or floats back and forth between a few. Now Google is providing a helpful new tool for quickly tracking down where we can watch something.

You’ve already had quite a few options for figuring out where to stream the movie or show you’ve got in mind. A basic Google search isn’t a bad place to start, though you may have to dig a little bit to find the most useful result. Gemini can also help, but it isn’t always drawing its information from the most recent sources — and streaming availability can change faster than it keeps up. Dedicated sites like JustWatch are often our best resources, but now Google thinks it can deliver that same kind of quality response, right in the Play Store.

Google Play is adding a new “Where to watch” card that pops up in search results when you’re looking for a show or movie. You’ll see a list of streaming apps through which the content you’re looking for is available, and have the option to install any of those you’re missing.

THIS is how I find out that Sealab’s no longer available on HBO Max?!?

Compared to Gemini, the information the Play Store’s drawing upon here appears to be much more accurate, at least in our initial tests. Really, the biggest problem here is that Play’s search results don’t have any information about our accounts with these streaming apps — you can’t easily tell which might involve you sitting through ads and which won’t, and with some of these, like Prime Video, you’d have to have a separate streaming service as an add-on to get the content.

Still, it’s a great idea, and Google’s implementation here is certainly better than some we’ve seen. Give it a shot when you’re looking to find where to watch something this weekend, and let us know in the comments how well it worked (or didn’t) for you.