Pluto TV added a much-requested feature to its Roku app that will change how you look for content. It now has a search feature. With Pluto TV’s large library of live and on-demand content, it seems only logical that it would have a search but until this update, the free service has not had a native search feature. Ironically Roku would include Pluto TV in universal search even when Pluto didn’t have a search of its own.
The new feature comes along with an overall update to the look and feel of the app. Most people will not notice the other changes. But the search feature is a game-changer for the app. With thousands of titles available via both On-Demand and live not having a search feature built into the app was becoming a real problem. If a user found a movie or TV show playing they may want to see if they can watch more of it later, see if its sequels are on the app or dive in with a series at their own pace. But without knowing exactly where to find it they were left to manually search multiple cattagories.
At the moment the search feature on Pluto TV is only available on Roku devices. Why that is, we are not sure. But it is not rare for certain features to show up on some devices before others. But before writing this article we did check a number of streaming platforms including Fire TV, Chromecast with Google TV, an Nvidia Shield, Apple TV, and the Pluto TV web portal. So you may have the new feature on something, but if you do not I’m sure it is on the way.
A particularly helpful feature of the app is that now when one searches for a given tittle the search results will include both the show/movie listing where it can be found on-demand, but will also list if it is playing on one of the live streaming channels. What it does not do is allow users to search for actors/directors.
But even so, the search feature on Pluto TV makes it so much easier to use than before and will be a welcome tool for streaming fans.
