What the Tech? App of the Day: Taste
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(ABC 6 News) – How many times do you spend more time looking for something to watch than you spend watching? The problem with subscribing to a lot of streaming services, is you have to exit one to browse another.
The app Taste eliminates the need to do that. It suggests movies and shows you’ll probably enjoy by matching you with other people with the same taste.
Taste looks like a movie version of Tinder. You swipe right for something you want to watch and left for something less attractive. But rather than showing you everything, Taste shows you only movies and shows available on the services you subscribe to. That’s helpful enough and other apps do this.
Taste offers suggestions of what you might like. The suggestions are based on reviews from other users with the same taste in movies as you.
When you first open the app, you’re asked to choose some of your favorite films and genre. As you browse through the list of movies, you’re asked to rate them as “awful”, “meh”, “good”, or “amazing”. After you rate around 20 movies, Taste has enough of a profile to start suggesting other movies. It shows movies you’ll probably like based on the likes of other users who match your taste in movies.
Do you spend more time trying to find something to watch than you do actually watching something? With so many streaming services and broadcast TV channels to choose from, it's difficult to know what's out there and what's worth watching.
If you give “No Country for Old Men” and “La La Land” “amazing”, you match with users who liked those. Movies they’ve reviewed and rated as good or awesome will show up on your list of suggestions.
You’ll be shown an endless string of movies that you can swipe right for love, and left for “not interested”. That information is also included in the algorithm that helps suggest movies you might like. Similar to dating apps, Taste shows a percentage of how each movie matches your taste.
The more you engage with the app, the better it gets at suggesting movies you’re likely to enjoy. The app is easy to navigate and suggestions are pretty spot-on.
The downside? It requires your name, and phone number and asks for your birthdate (which ypu can make up for security’s sake).
It is a free app for iPhones and Android devices, and it’s pretty good at suggesting something you’ll like.