Verizon’s go90 mobile video app is taking things to the big screen. Or at least, a bigger screen.
A new update of the app released on Monday will now allow go90 viewers to cast go90 content to larger screens via Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast.
The update – known as Version 2.0 – also includes new design and navigation features, including options to view curated content by genre. Users will also have new sharing options that make it easier to send clips or full episodes from shows or live events to friends via email, text, Facebook or Twitter.
Additionally, while users will not need to register to watch g090 videos, registration will now be required to comment or favorite certain items of content. Viewers will be able to comment while go90 content is playing.
A Verizon spokesman on Tuesday said the goal of the changes is to make it easier for users to access content.
The spokesman said the casting update will also give go90 the “flexibility to still be mobile first, but not mobile only.”
“Our goal is to get the content front-and-center for users,” the spokesman said. “We will be activating across every screen with mobile, web and screen casting.”
The changes will begin to roll out to users over the next few days, Verizon said.
The updates come as Verizon looks to boost viewship on the go90 platform, and signals a slight shift in Verizon’s strategy around the service.
While Verizon executives have declined to share early numbers for go90 since its launch in October, CFO Fran Shammo said during Verizon’s first quarter earnings call in April that the carrier is “encouraged” by the platform’s viewership figures.
In April, though, Shammo said Verizon would differentiate itself through unique video offerings on mobile.
“We’re going to a mobile-first strategy outside the home,” Shammo said at the time. “It has nothing to do with in-home content. Now some of the content you could watch at home could be on this for like sports. That has been very popular in the go90 environment. But we’re looking at a lot of different mobile first, short clips, news, sports. And if you think about it, original content…we believe that’s where we are going to be a differentiated brand with go90 and AOL, and everything else that we’re doing around that video platform.”
Both Shammo and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam have said go90 won’t be profitable right away – McAdam called the go90 investment “patient money” in May – but UBS in March said go90 will be “hard pressed” to compete with other video services.
Verizon has recently sought to boost its go90 content lineup to draw users via recent deals with AwesomenessTV, Hearst and Sony.