HBO Max gains a shuffle button for when you can't decide what to watch

Hbo Max Shuffle Play (Image credit: WarnerMedia)

What you need to know

HBO Max is rolling out a new shuffle button.
People who press the shuffle button will be shown content from one of 45 different shows.
There's no word on when the feature will come to smart televisions or other devices.

HBO Max has announced a new shuffle button that offers a new way for people to find something to watch when they don't have anything in mind.

The latest HBO Max change mimics a similar one by Netflix and is designed to give people something to watch even when they don't know what they want to watch. Struggling to pick something? Struggle no more, because Variety notes that HBO Max will now pick something for you.

Oddly it appears that there will only be a select number of shows that the new shuffle button will pick from. 45 of them, to be exact, which means you still might not see anything from one of your favorite shows. The chances are pretty good that you will at least know something about what you're watching — there are some big names on this list.

The full list of series that will be available via the HBO Max shuffle button includes A World of Calm; Adventure Time; Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown; Apple & Onion; Chappelle's Show; Courage the Cowardly Dog; Craig of the Creek; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Ed, Ed and Eddy; ER; Flight of the Conchords; Fresh Prince; Friends; Full House; Great Pottery Throwdown; Hot Ones; How It Really Happened; Impractical Jokers; Key & Peele; Looney Tunes; Martin; Mike & Molly; Regular Show; Reno 911!; Rick & Morty; Robot Chicken; Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!; Selena + Chef; Sesame Street; South Park; Teen Titans Go!; The Amazing World of Gumball; The Big Bang Theory; The Boondocks; The Mentalist; The Middle; The Nanny; The Office (U.K.); The Shot: Uninterrupted; Tom and Jerry; Total Dramarama; Two and a Half Men; We Bare Bears; Whose Line is it Anyway; Young Sheldon.

Unfortunately, those watching on most devices won't see the new shuffle button because Variety points out that it's "currently available globally in the desktop (web browser) interface, whereas Netflix's Play Something is available on connected TV devices and Android phones and tablets." That means Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad users are out of luck. At least for now.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.