Google Is Yanking Play Movies and TV App From Roku and Most Smart TVs

Google is officially pulling the plug on its Play Movies and TV app on all Roku devices and Samsung, LG, Vizio or Roku smart TVs, the company announced via 9to5Google on Monday.

Beginning on June 15, 2021, users with movies or TV shows purchased or rented through those service will be redirected to the Youtube TV app, with previously purchased Google Play Movies & TV shows no longer available on their old devices. In order to access previous purchases on the YouTube app, users will have to navigate to the “Library” tab while using the same account they use for Google Play Movies & TV, and then click on “Your movies and shows.”

While Google Play Movies and TV will no longer be available on the four aforementioned devices, Android TV, iOS and Apple TV are notably not mentioned in the blog post, which would lead some to assume that Google is still planning to allow the apps to function on those devices.

The switch up will mean that users’ Watchlists will no longer be viewable in the app, and will also mean that past purchases will not be seen or sharable by users’ family members who are using the same devices. The change will also affect anyone who previously used the Movies and TV app to access Movies Anywhere, a digital service that allows you to redeem codes from DVDs and Blu-rays so that all of your media can be stored digitally.

Google must know that change is hard for a lot of people, so the company is trying to sweeten the deal by offering users a onetime gift code that can be applied to their next movie or TV purchase — redeemable via YouTube, of course.