Amazon Prime Video is undergoing major design changes

Some companies are taking a more aggressive approach to redesign, offering new looks for their software (or hardware!) on a quick basis. Some, however, take a much slower approach and go years without updating anything. But sometimes things just need to clean up, and Amazon Prime Video definitely falls into that category.

The good news is that the wait is almost over and Amazon has confirmed that a pretty big update for Prime Video is starting today. As reported by The Verge, this is by far one of the biggest redesigns of the streaming service in years – even if it still looks familiar to users.

The Amazon Prime Video update is meant to make things look a lot less cluttered. But more than that, also make it more obvious what’s available through whatever Prime subscription you probably have. This will make it so that original Amazon content such as The Boys and the upcoming The Rings of Power will be more directly linked to the required subscription to access.

Subscription-based Amazon content will have a blue checkmark and “Included in Prime”in the description of the show or movie you’re watching. Meanwhile, content that can be rented or bought will be marked with a golden cart icon in the description.

The main navigation tools have moved to the left side of the display, which is familiar to other services. There are six main resources: Home, Search, Free, Live, Store, and My Content. If you go to the home area, you will find many different sub-categories that will offer content ranging from movies to series.

Looking for something popular on Prime Video? Well, Amazon has users too. There is a brand new Top 10 list that will be prominently displayed showing what is popular at the time. You can see what it looks like in the image above.

While there are some major changes here, the overall concept of Prime Video is still there. This should make the update eye-catching without completely alienating users or making it impossible to find something to watch.

As for when you might see this redesign, it could be soon. Amazon’s Prime Video update begins rolling out today on Android and various smart devices, including smart TVs, game consoles, and connected streaming devices like the Amazon Fire TV Stick. The initial rollout also includes Roku and Apple TV.

Amazon says the rollout will complete for iOS and the web in the coming months. It’s also worth noting that the new design won’t be featured on some hardware, including the Apple TV released in 2012 or the Sony PlayStation 3. So keep that in mind.

What do you think of the new redesign based on static images?