WatchTrail reopened on September 12, and the site just got a new look. Here is, in a single article, the new interface, everything that landed since the reopening, what's coming, and a few numbers about the community.
A new interface
On October 10, WatchTrail got a new look. Nothing changed underneath: your shows, your movies, your ticked sagas and your challenges are exactly where you left them. What changes is how you see them and how you get to them.
- Show and movie pages now open full-screen, with the artwork up front and key facts as pills.
- Your home page puts tonight's episode front and center, with one tap to mark it watched, and your counters: shows, episodes, hours, movies.
- On a saga, your progress stays in view: a ring, the next title to watch, and on desktop a bar that follows you down the list.
- Daily challenges are grouped at the top of the games page, and boards no longer jump while loading.
- On phones, a bar at the bottom of the screen gets you everywhere, with the games in the middle, one tap away from today's challenge.
- Search shows results right away, with Shows, Movies and People tabs.
- Blog articles are easier to read with larger text, and the watched checkmarks are easier to tap.
No more paid-only features
Since the reopening, the episode quiz, "What to watch?", stats and the Wrapped are no longer held back for a paid plan: a free account is all you need. The number of lists went from 5 to 20, and the site stays ad-free.
Much richer show and movie pages
- The cast: the top ten roles with their character, and for a show the number of episodes of each. Director and writer for a movie, creators for a show.
- An "At a glance" box at the top: format, total runtime (and how many evenings), status, genres, network, and the universes the title belongs to.
- The streaming block is now titled "Where to watch" followed by the title, and the FAQ opens question by question.
- When TMDB has no summary in your language, the page shows the English one instead of staying empty.
Actors get their own page
Every actor, actress, director or writer now has a page: photo, biography, filmography split into shows and movies, and the WatchTrail universes they appear in. When you're signed in, it also shows the titles in your library where you saw them. Search now finds people too, with All, Shows, Movies and People tabs.
Your stats and your Wrapped now rank your most watched actors. And three badges reward loyalty: Loyal (10 titles with the same person), Devoted (25) and Inseparable (50).
A tenth game: Guess the actor
One actor or actress a day, six tries. You start with only their birth year and country; every miss adds a clue: three titles from their career, from least to best known, a blurred photo, then their most famous role. Free, no account, like the other nine. Play Guess the actor.
Universes
Four more sagas to tick: The Hunger Games, Kaamelott, Shrek and Dune. HBO's Harry Potter series, Starfighter and The Mandalorian and Grogu joined their universes, Star Wars' chronological order now starts with The Acolyte, and The War of the Rohirrim joins Middle-earth as an optional movie. Every universe page now tells you where to start in both orders and how long it takes. See all universes.
Everyday tracking
- When you tick an episode, WatchTrail offers to mark the previous ones as watched, in one click.
- The import reads exports from TV Time, Trakt, Simkl, IMDb and Letterboxd, and accepts a file dropped straight onto the page.
- Your stats, Wrapped and data export count your whole history: they used to stop at 1,000 episodes.
- Your emails arrive in the language you read the site in, and a missed episode notification arrives the next day instead of being lost.
- If an action fails, a message says so and the page stays put.
Behind the scenes: security and personal data
In late September, the whole site went through a review. Deleting your account now really erases everything (photo, weekly email, notifications), the export gathers all your data, audience measurement only starts if you accept it and records no session, and the database is backed up before every update. The quiz and "What to watch?" say they are written by an AI, can be reported in one click, and the "Family" mood only suggests titles rated for all ages.
What's coming
- The Advent calendar opens on December 1: one Christmas movie a day, three badges and an exclusive Pop avatar.
- The Android app goes into testing in November. If you have an Android phone, you'll be able to join the testers from the dedicated page.
- Our videos and Pinterest pins have a new style, easier to read on a phone: follow along on our social accounts.
- Avengers: Doomsday comes out on December 18 in the US (16 in France): the guide to the movies to watch first is ready.
The community in numbers
As of October 9, WatchTrail has 31 members, 10 of whom joined since the reopening. Together they ticked 24,929 episodes (4,392 since September 12), watched 551 movies and follow 592 shows. These totals include every account, the team's included. Still a small community, one that ticks a lot.
Thanks to everyone who reported a bug or suggested an idea: many of these changes came from there. To suggest another one, write to contact@watchtrail.app.