It's a dream come true for Simpsons fans: all 552 episodes and counting of the hit show, on the go. That's what the massive Simpsons World app is bringing to users when it launches Oct. 21, but that's definitely not all it brings to the table.
IGN has an extensive hands-on preview of the app and it sounds promising. Upon starting the app, a random episode of the show immediately begins playing. But with more than 500 episodes to choose from, navigating the sea of Simpsons could prove a challenge for even the most knowledgeable fan. Thankfully, the Simpsons World app comes equipped with a number of impressive features to help you find what to watch.
"We recognize that The Simpsons was found linearly on television for the last 25-plus years in syndication, where any episode could be served up in a given night,"FX Networks COO Chuck Saftler told IGN. "If you just flipped on the TV, anywhere across the country, you'd find an episode, and that was a great, easy experience. But we wanted to look at the new paradigms that we're seeing in this SVOD space, this non-linear space, where people can create playlists and create the [experience] they want."
The popularity feature highlights which episodes are being viewed the most by app users, perfect to finding one of the show's more popular episodes. Curated playlists serve as themed collections of clips and episodes. Of course, you can also browse for episodes by season.
Better yet, even more features are coming to the app in the form of an exhaustive search function as well as user-created playlists. In the future, users can search for certain characters, locations or quotes and bring up clips and episodes accordingly. That's thanks to the development team inputting text from closed captioning, episodes scripts and more in order to create the ultimate search tool. User curated playlists can be shared via social media and embedded on web pages. These features are expected to make their way to the app sometime in January.
The app also serves as a Simpsons encyclopedia of sorts, filled with details on individual episodes or the show's characters. Users can also check out behind-the-scenes content for any episode they are currently watching. An "Everything Simpsons" news feed also appears in the app, featuring Simpsons news stories, images, clips and more.
What else could a Simpsons fan ask for?
