2026-06-12
It keeps logging me out of my own account
Please fix this. I already did this and I forgot my password and I forgot my original password but I know my Gmail and I’m getting tired of this stupid app
Updating
+1
#49 in Top Grossing Apps > Entertainment
+1
#52 in Top Grossing iPad Apps > Entertainment
iPhone Screenshots
iPad Screenshots
Description
HIDIVE is a passion-driven anime streaming service for full-tilt fandoms. From fantasy and romance to thriller and isekai adventures, HIDIVE’s carefully hand-picked and diverse catalogue serves the anime viewer who wants to dig deeper.
HIDIVE is your anime spot for uncensored simulcasts, fresh dubs, classics, and deep cuts - where you’re welcome to jump in, discover, and obsess.
HIDIVE is where anime fans belong.
Terms of Use: https://www.amcnetworks.com/terms-of-use
Privacy Policy: https://www.amcnetworks.com/privacy-policy
What's New in Version 10.2.1(374)
Performance Updates and Improvements
Seller
Name
HIDIVE, LLC
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
10.2.1(374)
Size
112.4 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated 17+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity
Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
Compatibility
iOS 13.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPhone 17e, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English
App Store: Customer Ratings
Ratings & Reviews
2.0 of 5 (5,113 Ratings)
App Store: Customer Reviews
2026-06-11
Not enough options
Not enough options, or good story plots… is like they just put boring anime..and not a lot of dubs … just disappointed
2026-06-09
Little clunky but good
I was hesitant at first getting this but it honestly works, it’s not the best but it works pretty good. I would recommend if you want more anime that isn’t on your usual streaming services like crunchyroll.
2026-06-09
The Anime You Can’t Find
All the anime you can’t find in crunchyroll. Your iPhone/mac/appletv will have all titles. Consoles like Xbox are limited and I can’t find this app on the PlayStation store. I’m happy with it.
2026-06-07
No control
There is no control or polish on this app. You cannot remove an anime from your continue watching or edit it as all. This is extremely annoying if you start an episode to test out a series and no longer find yourself interested. The streaming works fine but is also complete care minimum. Step it up HIDIVE.
2026-06-06
I can’t watch anything even tho I’m subscribed
So pretty much I’ve been subscribed for over a year now and out of no where I just can’t watch anything.
2026-06-05
🫶🏻
Could you please change the time skip button from 30 to 10 seconds in the app like the tv option has please 🫶🏻🫶🏻
2026-06-03
Disappointed
I have a subscription at first it was good amazing shows the the glitching where playing a show saying no subscribition that’s strange it’s bin like that for months almost a yeah I’m sad it was a good place for shows
2026-06-02
False advertisement
Charged me immediately even though it says free trial
2026-05-31
cant even click the app
it feels like my device will explode just trying to use the app. listen to the reviews please.
2026-05-25
Dont
You cant cancel your subscription because it doesn’t even pop up when trying even though they have your card information
2026-05-23
Subs not dubs
Audio resets to English dub after every episode, it used to remember your choice until app was relaunched at least. Please fix this what do you have against subbers
2026-05-23
Love it
Not sure why all the low ratings. It has a lot of good anime! So much to pick from. A better alternative for people who want to leave Crunchyroll.
2026-05-19
Nothing would play
Tried to log in but it kept saying it couldn’t find my email, went to make a new password but it said error. Made new email and subscribed but nothing would play. Logged out, logged in but nothing played. Don’t waist your time with HIDIVE
2026-05-14
A Joke
Cant even chat with support, they say they will reach out via e mail 2 weeks later nothing! No response no reaching out, not even checking what is the problem. The app is horrible, not user friendly at all, you can’t even use “space” to pause or play. Every episode need to change the language, somehow it just opens the episode not with my preferred language.
2026-05-11
No tiene español
No tiene idioma español ni subtítulos deberían hacer algo al respecto pues para eso pagamos
2026-05-10
Last Update
Ever since the last update, I haven’t been able to use the app at all. After it opens it shows “No Content Available” on every tab except for the Store. It doesn’t even let me log out, just refreshes the app and it still says the same thing.
2026-05-10
Doesnt work
Wont load anything at all.
2026-05-09
Disappointed
I don’t ever write reviews but this app pushed me to do so. HIDIVE has so much potential but the admin and technical support of this app clearly does not care about its users. At first I thought all these bad reviews were not actually that bad but man was I wrong. Half the time open the app I have spamming msgs telling me no content available I have to logout or delete the app every time just so I can see the content I sadly payed for. Now in its defense the competitor of crunchyroll really has made it hard for HIDIVE to compete that being said basic quality of life things that make crunchyroll so popular. This app just need some actual updating for its support team and it will be fine my goodness is this a disappointment. If you on the fence about this app definitely do not download wait for major updates before touching this app.
2026-05-07
Garbage
This app is fkn garbage I’m tired of having to change the audio back to Japanese after every single gd episode, my preferences are literally set to Japanese audio. I don’t know what the people at hidive get paid to do but they should all be fkn fired. Once my subscription is up this month I’ll be sticking to Crunchyroll and Amazon ✌️
2026-05-05
Great App! More isekai PLZ
I love the new app design and now shows track pretty good now. A huge step forward. Keep it up guy! 10/10
2026-05-03
Loading
It’s great that it has some selections that the others don’t but sometimes I gotta wait a week to access the app cause it disconnects from the server even when there no update so instead of watching something everyday it’s only once a week so I’m wondering the subscription is even worth it now
2026-04-25
Still a terrible App
I use the app every couple of months to see if it’s gotten any better and it’s still trash. It does a terrible job of resuming paused episodes as it often just restarts the episode. The skip function is set to 30 seconds which is terrible. The video player is pretty bad all things considered when you compare it to its contemporaries. Just an all-around bad experience.
2026-04-24
Great
It’s goood soo far it has better mature anime than crunchyroll
2026-04-22
Unusable won’t load
It literally won’t load anything.
2026-04-19
App is horrible
The shows are great the app
Crashes daily
2026-04-14
Please make some changes
Looks it’s a good alternative to crunchyroll but for some ungodly reason there is no “play next episode” button I know that can’t be hard to implement so please do it
2026-04-14
Issues
Bought a subscription that said I had 7 days free then charged me immediately and I can’t cancel it in app. Don’t get any deals from this and there aren’t any even kinda popular anime here
2026-04-10
Lazy garbage app
It simply doesn’t work, how can a serious company associated with Amazon be this broken? You can get shows to play if you repeatedly press the pause and play button for those actually trying to enjoy what they paid for. Oh yeah, it also doesn’t remember your watch history, so that’s convenient. Just sail the high seas, it’s a lot less stress inducing than dealing with this trash app.
2026-04-10
Great app - keep adding more Isekai
Great alternative to Crunchyroll. Cheap enough subscription to have both too. Fixed a lot of the bugs with recent updates and runs very smooth now. Could use more Isekai options and glad to see more being added over tome!
2026-04-07
Just want more shows
I like the updated interface, just wish they would bring more shows back!
2026-04-07
We need more options for Spanish
I like the app, it works well, but I wish they had more options to sub in Spanish (since dob would be too much to ask), it's the reason why it's not a constant payment app from month to month, please help me with that
2026-04-07
App has Very much improved
This app has gotten a lot better, like It’s saves where I leave off so I can continue watching great anime. Also your yearly subscription is worth it unlike most platforms.
2026-04-01
Works when it wants
Hard to like an app if it never really works. Logging out and in does not work. Always get the “something wrong” pop up. Well duh, it isn’t working so obviously something is wrong.
2026-03-31
HiDive
When I subscribed to it, I was never able to watch where I left off at. It always started me over. There are shows I want to watch on there that I can’t see anywhere else but I’m not wasting my money. I’m sorry. I just can’t.
2026-03-30
The app itself is whatever. I have other issues
This does not work on European regions and it doesn’t allow vpn’s i had to spend my afternoon carefully picking away at it just for it to work in time for my flight.
2026-03-29
the shows don’t work eminence in shadow doesn’t work
fix your app it wasn’t free
2026-03-28
I can’t cancel
Subscription does not show up in my Subscriptions section. Kinda important thing for me to be able to cancel. thanks
2026-03-26
ts so buns
THIS IS THE WORST ANIME WATCHING APP YOU HAVE TO PAY JUST TO WATCH SUM BUNS QUALITY EPISODES
2026-03-25
Better then CR
At least its marginally better than CR.
2026-03-23
Bug?
This just keeps telling me something is wrong and doesn’t even let me see the show I was watching, very annoying
2026-03-22
Don’t waste your money
The app is always going down on weekends. I subscribed for a year. Every two months or so, I have to go to the website to reset my password. The anime selection is small. Most of the big name anime they have can be found on Hulu or crunchy roll .
2026-03-20
Doesn’t work over mobile data
The app won’t load at all when I’m using mobile data I can’t even get on the website. Read some other reviews and realized there has been a long problem of videos not loading and receiving an error. Don’t recommend this company or app.
2026-03-20
Subtitle Problems
This app has anime you can’t find on other apps, which is great. However, I’ve encountered an issue a few times where randomly and newly released episodes the subtitles disappear. Closing the app or restarting the episode doesn’t fix it. It can last a few seconds or a few minutes. This needs to be fixed.
2026-03-17
Not that good
I like the selection ESPECIALLY THE Ecchi😋, but I thought I would at least have access to some anime’s but it seems all of them are locked and I have to pay to watch even one of them
2026-03-15
Amazing
Others people complaints about dumping things about this app when it a hidden gem
2026-03-15
Not user friendly
App needs overhauled
2026-03-15
Worth it
Doing the monthly to check it out first. No issues, cast from the app works great and no freezing or glitches. Has more mature shows vs crunchy. Plus it has shows that crunchy doesn’t have. I subscribe to both, so now I have a good variety to watch from.
2026-03-14
Almost
After thoroughly using and enjoying this app, I do feel it is lacking in a few crucial areas I feel as if it could be more organized.
A good example is the watch list It should be on its own sidebar by the home, browse, and search tab instead you have to dig through your settings to find your watchlist which is just a little complicated. When I started using the app, it kind of threw me off. I just wish it was an easier place to get to, and then I would use the app even more.
Also comparing it to its competitors, I feel as of this app crashes a lot, or I have to restart the app more frequently than the other ones of this type.
2026-03-08
It’s good if you’re looking for something that’s not on crunchyroll!
So I had burned through a lot of the anime on crunchyroll and and tried a few other apps but HIDIVE is by far better then any other out there
2025-10-20
After 4+ years
Update: The more I use the app the less I want to be on it. It’s impossible to keep up with shows and their releases even though they tell you dates of airings. Their tracking system never remembers where I left off and the list system is just useless. I need a watch list that tells me when there is a new release for that specific show similar to Crunshy. But theirs isn’t great either. Just want an easy interface without all of this noise and window to window repetition. Just need a show episode list and a continue where left off button and a better tracking system. But I’m sure it’s a server issue because they don’t make enough money. Which is also why their app is probably bad.
So I find that HIDIVE just is lacking in organization and user experience. It needs a rating system for their anime. You don’t know what’s good and you can’t seem to figure out what’s new. It’s just a mess imo. Eventually you catch on to the interface but by then you’re bored and just using myanimelist to see if anything for HIDIVE shows up. Which doesn’t help its model! I ended up watching a bunch of shows that turned out to be bangers. Unfortunately no one will know because I can’t review them. I think Crunchyroll has created a good system with their rating system. I would even argue it’s better than Netflix. Netflix dropped the ratings system which made me no longer enjoy Netflix anymore. People want to be on the same page with other humans. We want to be talking about the same things to find commonality. Reviews and feedback is how we communicate. Even social media is failing at this now. There is no reason to scroll if you only see comments that cater to you! I think HIDIVE would have better success with a ratings system.
2025-07-26
UI is trash
What is the point of a watchlist if I cannot fragging access it? That is the question I entered into Google after the tenth time of searching Roku-HiDive for my watchlist. The continue watching feature removes any show that I end a full episode of and keeps anything I quit midway. And since I have no way of accessing the watchlist, every single time I want to pick up where I left off on a show, I need to recall the exact name since the search feature is burned as well. Then I need to remember exactly which episode I was on, since there is zero indication that I’ve watched any of the episodes. Crunchyroll at least has “easier than pirating” going for it. Hidive is a chore each and every time I go to watch their service.
Worse still, I lost 9 months of a one year subscription because Roku logged me out and HiDive customer service would not allow me to recover the account at all. It is a shame too, because with less than five major fixes to the UI, they could have something that functions at the base line expectations of a modern app. Their catalogue is surprisingly robust and not the army of barely animated iseki clones that CR sports. But watching anything is such an exercise in frustration that it doesn’t matter.
If you hate yourself or want to disrespect your time, get this app and sign up.
2025-06-09
Not bad and not the best
I had to rewrite all of this because I accidentally clicked out when I had like an essays worth of test :)
This app reminds me of when you copy and paste from an article, but forget to fix the format.
Problems I came across within 1 day of using the app:
1. When you go back to continue watching an episode in the “Continue Watching” section, it doesn’t tell you what anime it is, and it doesn’t play the next episode. This is very irritating because most of the time I forget what the anime is even called and have to look up the episode name to find it. It also just made me waste 5 whopping seconds of my time!!!
2. The slider that controls the timestamp you’re on doesn’t even work. I mean, yeah, it shows you how far you are. But when you use it to fast forward or go back, it just… doesn’t do anything? I understand if this isn’t even supposed to be an actual feature but why give the option if you can’t even use it properly?
3. This one isn’t anything too bad. For some reason some episodes have “coming soon” or “releasing in 2 days” when they are already out and watchable? It’s either outdated or it means something else. But whatever it is, it’d be enjoyable if they actually told you.
But honestly, the actual watching experience is decent. Sometimes the subtitles overlap and I have no idea who is speaking, but I’m not sure if that’s even their fault.
2025-06-01
Great app with great content!
This is a great anime streaming app that has a lot of great content and even some exclusive content! A lot of people have left reviews complaining about tons of problems with the app but I have had no problems at all with the app yet. I may have found 1 or 2 possible bugs but I haven’t experienced any of the major issues many people are complaining about. As far as the content goes, many of the anime series HIDIVE provides used to be on Crunchyroll but unlike when these series were on Crunchyroll, HIDIVE provides many of those series fully uncensored and even with English dubbed versions. Overall the app and streaming service has great content, exclusive content, and many series are have English. However, HIDIVE does not yet have as much content as Crunchyroll has but HIDIVE still has lots of great anime series to watch.
2025-05-24
Worst app out there - & HIDIVE/AMC don’t care
This app is an embarrassment for the devs. It doesn’t remember what you’ve watched accurately, it doesn’t display series names just episode titles, if you start a show it allows you to continue through episodes but if you stop & continue watching you are not given a way to proceed to the next episode, you cannot easily go to an episode list except through main screen or search (no way when watching an episode from “Continue watching”). Complaints go unanswered, 98% of Reddit posts for HIDIVE are complaints about the apps but are never responded to.
HIDIVE has some good shows (though a lot of fan service stuff) but they make watching such a chore that it is easier to find their shows & watch on the high seas.
I’d rate the content 3 stars & the app 0 stars if I could. It’s not just that it is unreasonably bad (easy patch to put series names along with episode names on thumbnails or link thumbnails to episode lists) but that HIDIVE expends no effort to address basic usability issues. AMC, which purchased HIDIVE, clearly doesn’t care about it.
2025-04-21
Could use tweaks; great app
I was pretty hesitant about getting this app due to the multitude of critical reviews, but I’m glad that I did. Most of what the other reviews state as major issues are not present at all. The app has a really good selection (despite mainly using it to watch Oshi no Ko) and it’s not hard to find episodes for my favorite shows. When you finish a season, it even autoplays the next episode. That said if you pick up an unfinished episode from the homepage it won’t auto play. It is a bit clunky to have to go find the show and click on the name and find the episode but it could be much, much worse. The only other thing I’ve noticed was the subtitles in OPs switching between English and Romaji between episodes. Personally I like this because it helps me simultaneously know the English translation and hear the words being said using the English alphabet. There can also be a lot of words onscreen due to book pages/screens translated but pausing the episode lets you read it. I can’t speak for ease of cancellation as I’ve only had the app for less than a month and plan to keep the subscription. Anyway, though, the pricing is pretty cheap and it’s worth it to watch HIDIVE-exclusive shows. I can’t say it better than Crunchyroll because I haven’t tried it, but to be able to watch OnK is worth it ❤️
2025-04-16
Really needs improvement
It’s ridiculous that there isn’t a skip intro or next episode button when casting or watching through the app. Also you can’t remove shows from lists you create you can only add them so even after watching something I can’t move it to a different list. For example having a watching list and then finishing a series and then moving it to a watched list so I can separate what I’ve watched from what I am watching. Also I can’t get to a series episodes without having an anime in a list if you click an old episode it just starts playing that episode there is no way to get to series info in the app once you start watching something unless you saved it in a list. If you save it to a list then to get to a different episode you have to go lists, select the list and then select the series then figure out what episode you were on. There is no way to track what you already watched either so you have to remember where you were. Overall this app feels like it is still in development and not actually finished, yet users have been asking for these things for a while. What exactly does the subscription pay for if the app never improves? If it never improves why would customers continue paying?
2025-04-11
It’s fine
The app and selection is fine for the price point that it is targeting, but there are several things that need to be fixed to make this platform usable. When you hit continue watching on a show it should allow you to continue to the next episode without having to back out and search for the show. Also none of the episodes ever leave continue watching after finishing them. Also the Apple TV app needs a watchlist tab. Having to scroll left, go down to settings, select settings, scroll left, scroll down to watch list, scroll right, select my single watch list, and then select a show, and then select the next episode, is entirely too many clicks to watch the next episode of a show. A watch list tab should exist, it should default to your last used watch list and when you select a show it should default to the next episode after the one most recently completed.
2025-03-19
The worst part is the search
Like the anime’s on here, has different things than Crunchyroll which is good because I can pair these apps side by side.
But the worst part of this app is finding a show easily on the iOS app. Why isn’t the show title and a link to the show and a next button automatically included as part of any show with a series? Just awful UX in that regard. I like a show, I open an episode and sometimes it’ll have a next button (and it always does in the computer mode which is great) but on the phone mode it just sometimes does and often the description won’t even reference the show name or have a way to click next episodes so here I go searching for the original show, then have to click out of each episode on that to find it again. Just such a nuisance I wish somebody could fix it.
Otherwise love the shows.
2025-02-28
App improving, slowly
Time to update my rating (from 3 to 4 stars) and review here, since things have improved a fair bit since my prior review. The addition of the watchlists button to the bottom nav bar fixes one of my big issues with the app, and various bugs have gotten fixed, like the formerly missing series text titles and descriptions in the watchlist view. There is still one critical problem for me: the watched status for each episode is missing and not being updated even after episodes are watched, making it very hard to tell where I am in the various series. Lesser issues: 1) The home screen still only has thumbnails for the series, with no text labels, so it’s sometimes hard to figure out what series the thumbnail is for; 2) while new episodes are flagged in the watchlist and episode lists, it’s only done by date, for a week, and doesn’t track whether the episode is new/unwatched by the current user, and the separate history feature isn’t a real replacement for this important feature; 3) the multi-user profile support is welcome, but still minimal, I would rather not see everyone’s watchlists, just my own, and if episode “watched” tracking is ever added back in, it needs to be by profile, not account; 4) the skip forward and reverse buttons 30s skip size is mildly annoying since it’s too large, the iOS standard video skip is 10s, which is much more convenient for quickly going back to catch subtitles, which I do constantly.
2025-02-03
Pls try a little harder
I love the app for its exclusive anime and I was willing to pay for it even tho most of the stuff I wanted to watch was on other sites. I was just hoping for a quality viewing experience and an easy to navigate menu but… ITS ALL IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND! the site has yellow subtitles that make my head hurt with no alternative option to change them back! The fact I can’t erase my watch history (more specifically episodes from my watch history) has messed up the order of que! Speaking of, the menu is awful! I saw that there were two of the same show in my watching que and apparently it somehow marked the episode as unfinished so both that episode and the current one I’m on show up.
Your search menus a little busted too if I’m looking for a show the anime itself should show up first, not a bunch of episode of the anime. Could you at-least fix that until you fix the rest, again I genuinely love this sight it helps me watch a ton of awesome anime that I would have to download a vpn or something for its just that I know that your team could do better.
You have to be making a little bit of money, mayyybe use that that to fix up the app a little huh?
Here’s my list
Pls fix something 😅
• yellow subtitles
• lack of “erase watch history” button
• lack of “next episode” button
• buggy search bar system
• lack of “favorites” button (that would allow you to learn more about your customers interests!)
Idk that’s all for now and the last one’s more of a preference like I said I love your app a lot I just wish you’d try harder on its development.
Whoever might be reading this, (god I hope it’s not a robot) and Im genuinely begging that you get my message to someone who could help fix these things.
2025-01-27
Underrated, but Respectfully
I’ve looked at some of the recent reviews and their pretty poor and inaccurate. HIDIVE deserves 3 stars imo and the reasons for 2 star and below are made up from what I read. Go to profile and edit it to alter having subtitles, no subtitles, and other stuff too. It’s a pain to do and on the app it doesn’t let you fix it during the episode, but on the website it does. It certainly has its flaws, but it does have content, so as someone who has watched just about all the enjoyable content on Crunchyroll, I am glad that I found HIDIVE, I’ve been on it before, but it was bad. It has improved though. If it only improved recently the two stars makes sense, but is outdated. The app is at least 2.5 minimum, so recent one star raters absolutely don’t know what their talking about. I will say that maybe once you get through most of the good content it may be closer to two stars, but as of right now it’s three stars for me. Although I haven’t fully used the app really just tested it a bit here and there, so maybe I think this because of my experience on the website.
2025-01-08
Watchlisted Animes Not Displaying Properly After a Certain Amount
The watchlist feature is awesome and really useful for saving the animes that you start watching but don't finish and end up needing/wanting to come back to (because the continue watching feature ONLY displays and give you access to a random episode that you happened to not finish and NO access to the anime said episode is a part of). And I make full use of the watchlist feature, but it has an issue where after scrolling past like the first 10ish animes that have been added to the watchlist they stop displaying properly and only show you an infinitely repeating set of the next 5ish animes in the watchlist despite however many more animes are actually in the watchlist. Scrolling down to the bottom of this set only makes the set repeat infinitely and theres no way to refresh and access the rest of the animes past that stuck set that in are in the watchlist.
TL;DR: The watchlist feature only displays like the first 10-15 animes that are in it and won't display or even let you access the rest no matter how many more are in there. Which is annoying because it's the only consistent method of sorting and finding/finishing animes that you're currently watching.
2025-01-04
How?
How do you have one of the worst mobile UI I’ve ever had the displeasure to use… then somehow make it even worse! I used to use HiDive then stopped after I’ve seen what I wanted but recently downloaded it to watch some of the newer animes and the new “improved” UI just fights you every step of the way. It’s even worse than the last one. The old UI was awful, this one is down right revolting. Abysmal search options, can only sort by alphabet or ‘relevance’ which may as well be random. No comments, no user profiles, no user reviews, horrible subtitle integration, bugs and poor If you go to your history watch list and resume an ep you watched it won’t give you the next episode when you finish upnext but the 2nd to last show you watched, with no way to get to the main page of the show you have to search it up again. how did that even get though? The ui is somehow overly simple yet overly complicated to use. Please hire a User Interface Designer and add some actually useful functionality and you would easily have a 4 or 5 star platform, it’s just so insanely bad right now in its current form that I can’t give it anything above 1 star.
2024-12-24
User interface could use a facelift
So here is my assessment. First I love the content. The shows are amazing and I am glad that apps like HIDIVE exist to bring this content. However, there are some issues that I wish to bring to your attention that need addressing. First, it’s the inconsistency of logging in. There are times where I periodically would have to sign back into my HIDIVE account just to log back into my device. This is a headache. There is no other streaming media that I have this problem with except for HIDIVE. I recommend that HIDIVE work on this so customers can stay logged in on multiple devices without being logged off and can log off remotely. Most other streaming services already have this feature and it’s years old. It’s time for HIDIVE to get with the program.
Second and last, the content itself. I am watching Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon that is streaming on its 5th season and for some reason the 12th episode isn’t available. It just disappeared. This makes no sense. Please address this. I do not want to go to another streaming service for my anime when HIDIVE is probably the one anime source that provides me both sub and dub content not only quickly but efficiently.
P.s. do me a solid and get the entire series of Food Wars dubbed and subbed on HIDIVE for crying out loud. It makes no sense that another anime company has seasons 3-5 and you can only see the dubbed or subbed versions of season 2 on another streaming app and I don’t like paying for three different services for the same content.
2024-12-14
Selection is good, the app seriously needs work
HIDIVE has a good selection of anime to choose from, and the overall performance of their streaming service is good, however their apps & even their website needs some serious work.
The apps & website have the basic controls that you would expect, but nothing else like the ability to skip the intro & credits. I turned off the subtitles in the default preferences, but they turn back on for each episode & even if turned off, they will turn back on if you exit that episode, and are also on for the next episode, etc.
There currently is no way to clear the watched history, or easily remove episodes from the ‘continue watching’ list, you have to watch (or fast forward) them to remove them.
Overall I am happy with the service & plan on continuing my subscription, but HIDIVE really needs to get their website & apps reworked. Plus, they need to create an app for Samsung TVs.
2024-12-05
Can only watchlist single episodes instead of shows?!?
This app has a lot of shows I couldn’t get on Crunchyroll. The app loads up quickly and streams nicely. However, it is missing essential features. For example, try adding a show to your Watchlist. You can’t! Instead whichever episode you are watching is added to the Watchlist. What’s worse is the episode title is what is saved in your watchlist…not the anime’s title. Forget the title of the show? You’re out of luck unless you can Google to figure it out. There is no “skip intro” or “ skip credits” feature. Fast forward and rewind are in 30 second increments, only (can we get 10 or 15 seconds for rewind at least?). If you try to click on an episode from your Watchlist, it will play that episode and nothing else. You will have to go out to search for the show and play from there if you want to see the next episode. Play an episode of a show and want to go back to the shows page? You’re out of luck….not such thing as a “back” button. Once again, you must go out to the search box and search all over again. Finally, when you are on the single episode wishlist page, there is no direct link to get from that episode to the shows homepage. Crazy stupid and frustrating to use. I don’t understand why anyone would build an app like that. Navigating should be easy, the title of the anime should show and be linked on episode pages and Wishlists should save the show series. If you are desperate to watch a show HIDIVE has, it works…just not well. $5/month is too much for the low level of functionality and lack of frictionless viewing. I cancelled after the first month. FYI, I tried to like this on an iPad, iPhone and Xbox. It was a no go.
2024-11-20
Not as bad as some reviews suggest
I like this app & appreciate having a second app to watch anime Crunchyroll doesn’t have & it’s good to have competition in a space to keep innovation & improvement going… there’s some minor things that would make major improvements to this app on all platforms that would make it right up there with Crunchyroll. The video quality is great, the app Home Screen is well laid out & the unique “schedule” tab is awesome!… so I tend to believe a lot of money is being left on the table by not making some quality of life improvements considering Crunchyroll currently has over 1million reviews on the App Store there’s definitely a market Hidive isn’t tapping into enough at the moment but with some hard work from the devs they definitely could…•Consider alternative fonts & font colors to subbed content &/or allow users to select from a few options •10 second fast forward & rewind instead of 30 seconds/ sometimes it’s nice to push through an episode quicker but difficult to pinpoint where we left off at 30 second intervals •Skip intros(this one took a while for Crunchyroll to figure out so wouldn’t expect this as soon) •Hidive should have a cute mascot on display in the app •When saving content to watchlist it would be cool to save the show instead of the season. •Continuation of last point should save watch history to user account so we can jump right back where we left off. -apologies in advance apparently Apple Store reviews lump all text together even after I try to format it…
2024-11-18
Anime App Issues
I give 5 stars for the anime shows. For the app in the other hand seem kind of broken which makes it annoying. Such as I set it to subtitles off and still have to manually do it every time. The auto continue doesn’t work , only sometimes. I can get most apps on my google tv but not for this app. Hope this app eventually fix itself to avoid the annoying repeats of the flaws I mentioned. Also I notice the subtitles is moving quicker then the voices , the timing is off. As well as the words don’t match the acting for the English voice. I cannot said for the others cause I don’t speak it. Sometime the app seem to look like it zoom in on my phone device. Still I gave 5 stars for the anime, not to the app itself. I admit, Crunchyroll have their annoying flaws too. But am grateful to be able to watch anime. For someone from USA , I don’t have a lot of choices but to accept these broken apps while they’re lazy in the fixings and updating
2024-08-18
Updated review
First, I am using Hidive app on my Apple TV. In the recent year or so the app is getting better. From completely unusable - it finally became usable. Yes, it crashes one or twice a day. Yes, if you go home on Apple TV and then back to the app - it enters a “Reload loop” restarting the last episode you were watching. Yes, it sometimes stops at the end of an episode and doesn’t let you switch to the next one. But in the rest 60% it works! And that’s something. My biggest gripe at the moment is that there is no separate option to display subtitles for Japanese text displayed in the anime. It is either all the subtitles or none. For dubs all subtitles are annoying. But with no subtitles it’s hard to understand the plot twists without reading the text that is often shown in Japanese. I wouldn’t be bitter about lack of this option if the subtitles weren’t classified already at their end. Hidive service backend knows which subtitles are for voice and which are for text. Then why don’t you make an option to see just the text subtitles? I will gladly update my rating and review after this is implemented.
2024-08-10
It’s just downright sad at this point
I canceled my subscription, but when they finally got around to doing an app update I fell for it. Since then they’ve done a couple “updates”, and nothings any better. First removed profiles, forced you to have a watchlist, and now profiles are back but still have to have a separate watch list. Then they hide the watch list, shows just disappear constantly, shows duplicate, watch history can’t keep up and show a reliable history. If you can find the correct episode in your history you left off on, it refuses to go to the next episode, it won’t show the next episodes, and you can’t manually select the next episode from your hidden watch list bc the show listing just disappeared. If you can locate the show you were watching, and try to add it to your watch list, it’ll tell you it’s already in your list but still won’t show it. It can’t be super difficult to make a functional app like this bc Crunchyroll finally added profiles, and they actually work like you’d expect. The only thing keep this from being a 1 star is the decent shows they have listed.
2024-07-21
Listen to the people who keep you in business.
I don’t understand why this company won’t listen to its customers. There’s a reason why this app/streaming service has a 2* rating. I do love that they tried to update/fix their old interface but they haven’t fixed any of the issues plaguing this newer interface. How are you going to compete with other streaming services if you don’t fix yours. If you would take time and read these reviews you’ll know what to fix. You could easily hire someone for a few thousand dollars to fix this interface/app/website. This is why your app/website/steaming service is not doing so well, it’s because you won’t listen to the people who keep you in business. I just don’t understand why you won’t fix this, it’s been months since your newer user interface/app/website. Just a few issues that I will list; still clunky; continue watching;doesn’t remember what I’ve already watched; no likes/rating;no comments like old Crunchyroll; interface navigation and many more. Just read your reviews.
2024-06-15
Enough already.
At this point, I subscribe for about a month and a half at a time force myself to watch one or two shows, and then unsubscribe. Why? As every user has stated in reviews for as many years going back, the app and interactivity are absolutely awful. Hidive… you have one freaking job. That job is the experience you provide your customers. The experience is awful and people have been saying It’s awful for years now. I think I’ve even left a review two years ago, saying it was awful ( hoping that the time if enough people complained. Maybe you’d actually do something ) so… don't you think it’s time to freaking do something about it? Why don’t you have the balls to respond to a single one of the reviews discussing how bad your service is? At this point my goal and leaving a review is in hopes that it saves just about everybody else from wasting their time in a company who clearly gives no care about their customers and clearly is not even paying attention probably because they don’t care.
2024-06-04
Offline Downloading Feature Simply Does Not Work
I’m trying to download a movie from the app because I have a flight to travel on for a couple of hours and the offline download feature that I am paying money for within the subscription doesn’t even work. The problems are all over the place and completely random without any sort of rhyme or reason.
Sometimes the download will complete itself (if I’ve stayed completely still on the specific tab of the movie/show I’m downloading) and give off the check mark to safely assume that I can find it in my downloads page for later. Not the case at all and when I back out to check there is nothing there, lo and behold when I search back up the show it says that it’s ready for download, as if I never downloaded it in the first place.
Other times the download will complete, give off a check mark, only to restart itself moments later for no discernible reason.
The download circle can also just not move at all when you tap it. Tapping the download button at any time during the process no matter what situation will just tell you the download failed, so don’t do that I guess. Also if you think of going to a different page other the one you tapped the download button on then I guess the download just stops itself like you never even pressed the button, because no matter what it never shows up in your downloads page.
All of these random issues in one singular and very important feature seems like an immense oversight and I can’t help but wonder if I’m the only one experiencing this. Very frustrating when I just want to temporarily install a movie to view while in flight.
2024-05-27
Big updates, still terrible experience
Let’s face it, most of us subscribe for one or two shows that HIDIVE locked in as exclusives. We know it. They know it. It’s a hostage situation. Despite the pedigree of the company founders, HIDIVE somehow continues to provide the worst streaming experience ever, and continually make it worse (while raising prices!)
I recently went on an international trip and wanted to download some episodes for binging on the long-haul flights. But the app refused to load any content. Just a basic: No content available error message. I was probably flagged for being in an unsupported region (Japan!) on initial connection because I forgot to turn my VPN on. I’m a U.S.A.-based subscriber, and the app was useless to me for my entire trip.
Only rating this two-stars because the updated player finally supports skipping forward and backward a few seconds. Unless there are steady improvements over the next year, this is my final year as a subscriber. The few exclusives they have are amazing, but there’s no shortage of anime to watch elsewhere. Honestly, I’ll buy the shows on disc if I need to watch them. The experience of using HIDIVE has never been good, and only feels worse over time. As a software engineer myself I’d love to spend a day with their tech team and learn why the experience is so poor. Is it the tech team, product managers, executives? Who deserves the blame. I wonder…
2024-05-25
User interface is worse than illegal anime websites
The new update is so annoying HIDIVE originally had profiles but now their basically completely gone. Reduced to having to go and manually click on your list where it’s just two watchlist not profiles, and watch history is combined now so it really is like you’re sharing one profile. Not to mention the biggest problem is the fact that when you’re watching a show it doesn’t keep track of where you left off. If you click on a show there’s no inkling of an indication that you were on an episode. Also if you hit start watching it automatically takes you to the first episode every time. Also a little nitpick here but I hate the fact that the subtitles aren’t embedded into the show, it’s so ugly and distracting. Another thing shows will just refused to show up in my continue watching, the only way they’ll show up there is if I didn’t finish the episode. Also it should be a crime that you can’t go back 10 seconds being forced to go back 30 seconds. Another problem is that on my phone I will search anime and go to add them to my list and they will just not appear. The only way I can find them is if I go on the TV, it’s like my list is full or some thing. I like the fact that Hidive has a lot of anime you can’t find on Crunchyroll and that they even have a dedicated LGBT+ genre but all of these very critical problems is really the sullying viewing experience, They really need to get their act together.
2024-04-28
Subtitles
Since HiDive is pretty inexpensive compared to other streaming services I’m not going to slam it for having some shortcomings. I just want to say if any employee of HiDive sees this please put black outline in your subtitles! It’s hard to read with most colors because they start blending in with the show. I have to have it on red or yellow maybe white depending on the show and brightness. It’s only a problem i have on your site, when i went to Crunchyroll i tried to pay attention to the difference and with their white subtitles they have black outlining. And it may not sound like a big difference but it’s huge, a massive difference. I have to pause or literally switch colors in between scenes sometimes for HiDive just to see what they’re saying. With the black outline i can read and watch comfortably without ever having to pause. So please for the love of god please!!!! Change the way you do subtitles! It would make the viewing experience so much better!
2024-04-26
FINALLY AN UPDATE
Decide to cancel my subscription due to the pretty much impossible to use app, but after taking a look again, it seems they updated it three days ago! It now allows for easy moving through true video with skipping or rewinding 30 seconds. While the subscription did increase by a dollar, (which if I’m going to be real hidive, if you don’t pop off with more bangers like Oshi-no-ko and eminence in shadow, is pushing it… but hopefully this will allow for those to be made) the overall experience in perfectly usable. I’m not sure what happened with the profiles or I’m hoping I just haven’t figured that part out yet, but the search is much better (list series above everything else please hidive), the play back, the details, etc. it’s all just so much better. Time to enjoy🍿
2024-04-14
Sloppy app
While it appears that HIDive has some interesting content (5 total shows of interest), the app is one of the jankiest I’ve ever come across. Most of the 3 functions do not work. Yes, there are only 3 functions and only 1 of them actually work. It’s not really worth getting into the details, suffice to say, it is not very good. The watchlist is broken, thus you cannot add any shows to it. The slider to choose shows is wonky and slips onto the wrong show often; causing the user to restart the search to for the actual show they attempted to watch. Add that the entire app crashes on AppleTV every 6th time you click on anything, and the fact that many shows appear as ‘no content’, when you click on them. It’s just bad. See ‘watchlist’ comment above…as this means you have to start a full scrolling search all over again, while hoping the scroller doesn’t choose a different show again, to restart the process (which ultimately causes the app to crash).
Honestly; this app doesn’t deserve 1 star. It’s just beyond broken and from what I see of other comments, it remains broken. This app reminds me of my 9 year old making their first app. Except this one is charging money for what appears to be an app created by a distracted child. This app is not ready for market by any means.
2024-03-13
Finally an update… but made it worse?
(Iphone 15 review)After years of the same clunky app the finally drop something new only to make it as bad, if not worse then the original! They finally added a forward and reverse 10 seconds button but removed the skip to next episode button. To remedy the lack of a skip episode button they decided to completely change Auto play and did so for the worse. They removed the next episode buttons and the little pop up at the end that gives the countdown to the next episode. You need to go in and turn on autsostart in the options do to play next episode but that hasn’t worked on anything I’ve watched so far and at to end of the episode they added a restart button because that’s what no one need. It doesn’t take you to the shows page anymore when you exit just previously watched shows are listed (in case you want to watch the same thing over again and not be able to watch the next episode). Now in order to manually go to the next episode you need to go back to the Home Screen, searching for the show again and then select the next episode. Why they used designers who apparently never watched tv on their phones in their lives before is beyond me. Half a decade of bad reviews and this was the could come up with as a fix? Disappointed.
2024-03-08
The App Overhaul that Saved the Company
I’ve always loved HIDIVE’s selection of anime. Various shows like Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Oshi No Ko, DanMachi, etc.
There was always one humongous problem however, and that was the horrendous, laughable app that HIDIVE refused to fix. The interface was full of bugs, painfully slow, and difficult to navigate. The new app overhaul, as of March, 2024, fixed this issue completely.
Not only are things easier to access, but the app itself is much smoother, more organized, prettier, and genuinely just cooler. I appreciate that HIDIVE finally decided to put in the work to make their app, the very thing that every single user accessed in order to view their anime on the platform they’re paying a subscription for. I wholeheartedly believe this will assist in making HIDIVE a genuine competitor to Crunchyroll, and I truly hope that HIDIVE continues to make the great decisions it’s been making in the past 12 months.
Cheers to you, HIDIVE, you’re finally moving up.
2024-03-07
Finally, an update!
There is FINALLY an update, a major one at that. It’s not perfect, however I still am giving this a 4 stars simply because many of the issues that made the app unusable have been fully or somewhat addressed. The 4 stars is my appreciation for finally fixing the app, and to hopefully encourage future fixes to make it better.
As of the March 7 update the app is in an actual usable state whereas previously it was a contender for worst iOS video streaming app. My observations so far are below.
Positives:
-There is now an option to skip/rewind 10 or 30 seconds (FINALLY)
-You can look at multiple seasons of a series now with the ‘Season’ dropdown button, versus previously the dropdown did not work and you were only able to access other seasons on the browser version.
-The continue watching actually works.
-The appropriate sub language is always active (previously I would always get Spanish subs despite having English selected).
-I don’t randomly get errors while trying to watch a video.
-The overall layout and design is more friendly.
Negatives:
-If I want to look at the list of episodes of a series I am currently watching, I can’t do it from my “Continue Watching” list, I have to exit to the main menu and search for it.
-I am on iPad with a keyboard, and the skip/rewind/pause do not work with the keys, they only work by touchscreen.
-You can’t remove items from your ‘currently watching’… or at the very least I haven’t been able to figure it out.
2024-01-17
Oh you people giving up just because the app doesn’t work.
This isn’t entirely an app review, but a means of pointing out that the app is entirely unnecessary for Hi-Dive. I have been using HD entirely via their website on an iPad Pro with Firefox as a browser and have had very little drama. My only issue came about when the full screen view would drop the subtitles, but a couple of clicks brought me to the fix of enabling subtitles in Apple Accessibility settings. The website allows scrolling and jumping in ten second increments and setting whatever language/subtitle pairings you want from available translations. I have found everything to work just as well or better than CR’s app, just that it’s web browser based instead. The quality hasn’t wavered below max and I have had only one stoppage, probably due to my own family maxing out our home bandwidth at the same time.
For all those people saying don’t bother with HD just because of the app, you are doing your fave shows a disservice because those licensing fees go back to the studios, animators and mangakas. If you want your Gushing Over Magical Girls, pay for it so they’ll make more, but just use the website, the app is definitely problematic and has the shortcomings others have mentioned.
2024-01-12
Interface is horrible!! Please fix it.
How is there an app this talked about with this bad of an interface on iphones and iPads? Last update was three years ago? Are you even trying to improve? The interface on iPads and phones won’t allow you to remove shows from your watch list. You can’t pause shows you are watching bc they just keep playing or pause for a few seconds then start playing again. Switching episodes is a pain it’s doesn’t keep track of what episodes you have watched or where you stopped an episode at should you close the app and come back later. The options on the phones and iPads are hard to get to and navigate. The fast forward and rewind is a complete guess as to where the app will actually stop the episode. You might get close to where you want to be but most likely will end up somewhere completely random. You can try to move the little slider at the bottom of the screen but when you stop it where you wanted it to be, it will move itself forward or backwards to where ever it wants to be. I have never seen a more poorly made interface for iPhones or iPads. I’m not sure if it works well on other devices but even on my television it’s still got a lot of the same issues. I bought the year subscription and should nothing be done for yet another year to fix these issues I will not be renewing. I spend more time trying to get it where I want, working like I want, and remembering what episode I was on then actually watching anything.
2023-10-08
Horrible app
I never write reviews in the App Store, never. But I had to for this one. This app is horrible, the fact that the last time they updated this app was 2 years ago (according to the App Store) and the app is still running surprises me. I’m glad I used the free trial instead of paying for a year like I wanted to. Loading up a video shows up an infinite loading wheel, until I click play, stop and the play would the video load and play. It takes forever for the show to load the episode list, bunch of errors. And this is with 1-2 hours of app use. How does apple with their strict rules let an app developer not update their app as it can potentially cause privacy risks. How does crunchyroll even allow a mediocre anime streaming service to get rights to certain popular anime? Hidive must put all its money on having show in their apps and barely enough to keep the app alive
Edit: I wish I could give it 0 stars, app is getting worse by the day. Doesn’t show episodes you’ve watched, can’t put anything on queue, and now I can’t pause. If I pause, the stream will continue to play with no sound. When I finish an episode the video will close out and the episode sound will play in the background. I have to close the app to watch the next episode
2023-10-02
Looks terrible
The UI for this app needs a huge improvement thats for sure. It’s hard to navigate around and to even save/favorite a series (which is impossible to do unless you have a subscription which I find silly because while I understand not being able to watch any episodes without a membership, at least let me save the anime I want to watch later if I ever do plan on subscribing in the future), or find your OWN watchlist. The most you’ll find is your recently watched series above all the other anime listed.
Whats worse is that this app has NOT been updated for possibly over 2 years… (Which is unfortunate because they have a lot of good anime on their service…)
This rating is solely for the app only. As I have not used the desktop version of this streaming service, I have no idea if they just favor the desktop version more because its easier for them to handle, or they just simply hate their mobile platforms… If they ever plan on updating the app and revamp the entirety of it, I think that’ll convince me into wanting to subscribe to this service.
2023-10-01
Just terrible, should sell the rights to any other company
I never write reviews, I hate the process and think my opinion usually is one sided. This app is soooo bad that it makes me not want to watch any of the great anime on it. I have spent the last 25 minutes trying to get subtitles back on. They just disappear mid episode for 0 reason. Want to skip 15 seconds? Good luck. Want to back up a minute cause a huge thing happened and you didn’t quite get all the details? Lol good luck trying. No fast forward button, no rewind button. I try to use the bar at the bottom and it is so terrible to use, I can’t even drag it without swapping apps. Then when you do get it, the time doesn’t update so you are blindly moving it hoping you find the right time stamp. Spend 15 minutes finding the right spot, press play, boom reset to where you started for 0 reason. This app is actually terrible to use. Unless you are a die hard fan like sadly I am, avoid this app at all cost. They don’t deserve your money and you are better off finding the anime somewhere else.
2023-09-29
Run. Run far away.
I have never — NEVER — experienced such a poorly designed streaming app. This may sound unbelievable, but is literally impossible to watch anything beyond the first season of a show on a TV. Airplay DOES NOT WORK period, and when you try to cast anything from the second season, it will just play the first episode of season 1, no matter what you do.
I work in software development and I assume either they have a very small, overwhelmed, and probably underpaid (like one person) development team, OR they have a team of extremely incompetent developers. Truly, unbelievably bad and I can't believe I've spent money on this. I urge you to seek other ways of watching these shows, even if it means waiting for the bluray. It will be worth it to save yourself the headache and frustration.
Edit: I just noticed the app has not been updated IN TWO YEARS! That's a lifetime in mobile app development!!! I take back what I said, I think they have ZERO developers at this point and are just trying to make a cheap buck while their app and website are held together with duct tape and a prayer. Any review giving more than 1 star is being unbelievably generous. This app is rubbish.
2023-09-11
The Ui
I really hope that as I type this, the company behind this app is working on overhauling this app. I mean seriously, how UI this bad? The catalogue is great, and the way they sort everything is spectacular, but it’s when you actually click on a show that things get terrible. The app constantly flickers black and back, the continue watching button sometimes gets stuck on a single episode for all eternity, there’s no rewind or fast forward buttons, half of the screen doesn't work when you’re watching a show, so basically all of the buttons on the right side of the screen are useless, so basically there’s no way to change captions nor language while watching, you have to stop watching go back all the way to the settings to change them.
This app is bad, but I love the website for PC, and the shows on it are great. I love everything about it except the actual video player and when you click on animes.
2023-05-23
Atrocious UI
I downloaded this app to be able to watch some shows that are only available on here and have been frustrated from the moment I started the first episode. The UI (user interface) is absolutely abysmal, there is no 10 second skip button, no next episode option so you will have to back out and select the next episode every single time, if you pause or open up a notification it will go back around 5 sec and can become really annoying. It also does not save which episodes you have already watched whenever you close out the app, so you either have to write it down or try to put it to memory. I, also, stream anime on both Funimation and CrunchyRoll and the basic interfaces on those apps are not even a thought on this one. If it wasn’t for the couple of shows that are exclusive to this app I would 100% recommend finding somewhere else to watch anime, especially with how limited it is on here. But I can saw with certainty, if they do not make major changes to their app then it will die out to the much better apps on the market as, at least for myself, I will cancel my subscription as soon as I finish the shows I’m watching.
2023-03-17
Terribly designed app with no fix in sight
If you look through the reviews (going years back) the issues I list below are still here from years prior. The developer seems to have no interest in doing anything to improve the user experience. You would think with HIDIVE having a parent company like AMC Networks that the app would have been overhauled at some point but that doesn’t seem to be the case. HIDIVE is clearly at the bottom of their list of things to invest in. Is the app technically functional enough to where you can watch content, yes but that’s where the positives end. None of the anime apps out there are particularly stellar but the HIDIVE app takes the cake for being so bad that the service is not worth paying for. There is no skip forward or back 5-30seconds options (you have to manually seek everything), no way to see from the series page where you left off or what the last episode you watched was. Nothing syncs from where you last watched on iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. Most of the time, at the end of an episode it will not auto play the next episode. The Apple TV app is slightly worse in that when you start an episode it goes to a loading icon that you then need to pause and then hit play to start every single episode.
2022-12-27
Could beat lot better
I'm not asking for Netflix quality streaming or anything but, this is pretty bad and it could be better if they just changed a few things. 1. Why is the subtitles automatically Portuguese? Why can't it stay in English, especially when I have to constantly set it to English? 2. I'm signed onto 3 devices, 2 TVs and my phone but, I'm the only person watching because I'm the only person who watches animes in my house. Why can't it remember which episode, settings or where I left off when I switch devices? I'm not watching on two devices at once as it's either the TV or the phone, mostly on my phone though. 3. Subtitles are too high when watching on my phone and could you please put black borders around the subtitles itself so that it doesn't have that annoying black bar around it when I'm watching on my phone? It's not like this when watching on the TV. 4. Please see # 1 as it's super annoying every time I switch devices or if I have to take a break only to come back and it can't remember where I left off or what settings it's on. This is especially annoying if I'm in the middle of an episode and then come back only to have to remember what episode I left off on and exactly where I left off as it'll start off at the very beginning.
2022-11-07
So bad, painful
No skip button, no rewinding nor forwarding button, you have to use the line to actually move to a spot, but it’s so bad because it’s non-compatibly or non friendly with iPhones. The line is literally right at the bottom of the phone, RIGHT NEXT TO THE HOME BUTTON. The AMOUNT of times I tried to scroll, but moved the home button accidentally before I can even scroll through the timeline. EVEN when I finally start scrolling, sometimes I miss some parts so I go back to rewind a little, after doing do, it goes back to where I was left off, like for example: I’m at 8:42 for an anime, and I wanted to go back like 5-10 seconds, it freezes, then after successfully scrolling to my destination, IT GOES BACK TO 8:42. Then I have to repeat the entire process after another. HIDIVE, please just sign a license to VRV again because that was so much better to watch it on. Or at least update ur app to make it more friendly to use. Did I forget the next or previous episode buttons? Did I also forget the “resume” watching doesn’t do squat at all? There all terrible. Please listen to our feedback and work on your app. Stupid animes that are signed with HIDIVE, I really wish that wasn’t the case. I’d rather use a pirated site (I hate doing this) then using this garbage
2022-01-10
Difficult to Use
I like HIDIVE in general, but the app is INCREDIBLY difficult to use. There are no fast forward/rewind buttons at all (whereas most streaming apps have advanced far adopted the double-tap to rewind/fast forward). Moreover, the timer bar is so close to the bottom of the screen, that even using your finger to fast forward/rewind is pretty impossible because it just moves the whole video. On top of that, it doesn’t always LET me rewind/fast forward. I’ve spent so much time trying in vain to use my finger to move the button thing on the itty bitty timer bar, only for it to automatically go back to the point in the show I was trying to move away from. It got to the point where I just logged in on my computer to restart the episode.
The only other thing I don’t like is how big the icons for the shows are when you’re browsing. I think bigger is okay, but I can only see like three shows at a time. Maybe if they were just a teensy bit smaller that would be better.
2021-09-01
Only One Star
I never write reviews for apps but HIDIVE has won the opportunity. They have succeeded in creating a very mediocre app with horrible functionality and effectiveness. The interface and service of this app is just extremely terrible. I created an account and purchased their monthly subscription in order to watch the english dub version of ’Haikyu’, but quickly realized that I shouldn’t have. Firstly, I tried login in (to the app) soon after signing up, and it wouldn’t let me log in when all the credentials were 100% correct. I had to change my password and it still wouldn’t let me sign in after countless times (and multiple devices). Luckily I decided to take a look at the reviews and decided to log into the website, and fortunately I was able to login. But still the problems didn’t stop, after finding the show and deciding to watch it on the tv… both the website and applications wouldn’t connect with my AirPlay tv. I get that the app/website might not support it but if you're going to have a subscription based service at least make it more accessible for users to use…
2021-02-05
Not without faults, but worth it
I would say this is the best anime app when compared to Funimation or Crunchyroll. There are a lot of common sense features that are offered here that the other two lack. I feel like this company cares about anime whereas the others care more about business.
That said, this app isn’t perfect. It regularly “forgets” what episode I’m on in a series which isn’t a big deal for some but is for others. The cast feature also needs to be enabled before starting a video which I count as a minor inconvenience when moving from one room to another.
The most disappointing part about this app actually isn’t their fault but how Apple has stunted them by giving them the ultimatum of hiding half of their shows or losing their app altogether on the platform. The fact that Apple is playing favorites with the other anime apps is nothing short of disgrace.
All in all, despite the shortcomings, I love this app, I love the value and am happy to continue my support as they grow and improve.
2021-02-04
Cheated out of free trial
Listen, I could ignore the terrible quality and playback issues that one has to put up with while using your app. I could even deal with the poor functionality of your app in it’s entirety because I am aware that it is very new. However, what I will not accept is signing up for a subscription, having your app crash while I am watching something and then telling me I need to subscribe again. I happened to get the 30 day free trial which my Apple account shows is STILL active, but for whatever asinine reason my account within your systems does not register this anymore. I’m not paying you up front for something that I was given a 30 day free trial for. I would like this fixed because what I am not going to do is pay for an app that does not have the functionality nor the quality to justify the money you ask for. This was the only streaming service I could find that allows me to watch a dubbed season of a specific show so I was willing to deal with the bugs while you guys figured it all out, but not this. There isn’t even a way to contact someone about my issue and your help page is unhelpful, which is why I am taking to this review. I’m not paying you when I was told I’d get it free for 30 days, it’s literally only been 30 minutes.
2020-12-13
App vs. website
Unfortunately, there is a huge difference when it comes to streaming on the website versus streaming on the app. AppleTV and iPhone apps don’t actually allow all the shows in the library to be seen. You’re totally missing out on a lot more content and you’re better off watching it from a computer or going to the website as an alternative. I complained about it a few times and every time the HIDIVE crew actually responds to me they just say something along the lines of not having the full rights for the apps. Something about it being more expensive on their end. What kind of crap is that? Hiding shows that we actually paid for is almost messed up. If you logon through a browser, the whole library is exposed for you to watch. I wouldn’t be as upset if you can at least see the whole list whether your using an app or browser and just not allowing playback if they felt like it. Something about hiding the fact that we have access to more anime that we paid for seems a little shady.
2020-11-25
Has more bugs than the notell motel.
Rarely works for any of the titles. And when it doesn’t the video formatting is terrible. All of the negative reviews are spot on. And their app team doesn’t seem to give a crap about fixing it. I love pretty much all anime and that’s what got me to jump at the subscription, however this is the worst streaming service I’ve tried. I feel like a moron for jumping at the discounted year subscription. Most titles aren’t available through any app not just iOS. The ones that are won’t play. “Stream not found”. Customer service is a joke. “We’ve tried to recreate the issue but haven’t had any luck.”, is their standard response. I’ve tried the apps on multiple devices from iPads to Xbox to play stations. All have terribly clunky video streaming when it works. Constantly having to delete the apps and reinstall. No way to just restart a video from the beginning. It’s the modern equivalent of having to rewind a vhs. This isn’t some new technology. Video streaming has been up and running for over a decade. The beta for Netflix was 100% better than this. At this point it feels like they are just jerking people around. Definitely not renewing my subscription.
2019-11-18
Amateurish Beta App
Sentai has licensed some great shows, and I have to admit it disappoints me for both the dub quality and because of the execution on this app. I understand there are restrictions and limitations on their ability to deliver on the former, but there is almost no excuse for the latter.
While other apps allow you to jump forward or back in 10 or 15 second increments, that option is missing. Additionally, the progress/scrub bar is situated in such a way that it activates my menu bar.
I have noticed another issue as well: some multiple-season shows are not accessible under the "season" menu and have to be located individually. Oddly enough, the first season shows as "Season 1" and the second season shows as "Season 2", so I think it might be dirty data causing the seasons to not be grouped together (likely because the titles are slightly different between the seasons).
Lastly, why put a help section with an "About the App" tab only to direct the user to go to the site? Why not load the app info within the app?
The app feels like a beta that has not fully baked and it causes a lot of frustration as a result.