Name: HIDIVE
Rating: 1.94498 (2599 reviews)

User Reviews for HIDIVE

1.94 out of 5

2.6K Ratings

4 months ago, verygood nickname

User interface is worse than illegal anime websites

The new update is so annoying HIDIVE originally had profiles but now their basically completely gone. Reduced to having to go and manually click on your list where it’s just two watchlist not profiles, and watch history is combined now so it really is like you’re sharing one profile. Not to mention the biggest problem is the fact that when you’re watching a show it doesn’t keep track of where you left off. If you click on a show there’s no inkling of an indication that you were on an episode. Also if you hit start watching it automatically takes you to the first episode every time. Also a little nitpick here but I hate the fact that the subtitles aren’t embedded into the show, it’s so ugly and distracting. Another thing shows will just refused to show up in my continue watching, the only way they’ll show up there is if I didn’t finish the episode. Also it should be a crime that you can’t go back 10 seconds being forced to go back 30 seconds. Another problem is that on my phone I will search anime and go to add them to my list and they will just not appear. The only way I can find them is if I go on the TV, it’s like my list is full or some thing. I like the fact that Hidive has a lot of anime you can’t find on Crunchyroll and that they even have a dedicated LGBT+ genre but all of these very critical problems is really the sullying viewing experience, They really need to get their act together.

4 months ago, Leviathan

Big updates, still terrible experience

Let’s face it, most of us subscribe for one or two shows that HIDIVE locked in as exclusives. We know it. They know it. It’s a hostage situation. Despite the pedigree of the company founders, HIDIVE somehow continues to provide the worst streaming experience ever, and continually make it worse (while raising prices!) I recently went on an international trip and wanted to download some episodes for binging on the long-haul flights. But the app refused to load any content. Just a basic: No content available error message. I was probably flagged for being in an unsupported region (Japan!) on initial connection because I forgot to turn my VPN on. I’m a U.S.A.-based subscriber, and the app was useless to me for my entire trip. Only rating this two-stars because the updated player finally supports skipping forward and backward a few seconds. Unless there are steady improvements over the next year, this is my final year as a subscriber. The few exclusives they have are amazing, but there’s no shortage of anime to watch elsewhere. Honestly, I’ll buy the shows on disc if I need to watch them. The experience of using HIDIVE has never been good, and only feels worse over time. As a software engineer myself I’d love to spend a day with their tech team and learn why the experience is so poor. Is it the tech team, product managers, executives? Who deserves the blame. I wonder…

9 months ago, 960mcsd

Interface is horrible!! Please fix it.

How is there an app this talked about with this bad of an interface on iphones and iPads? Last update was three years ago? Are you even trying to improve? The interface on iPads and phones won’t allow you to remove shows from your watch list. You can’t pause shows you are watching bc they just keep playing or pause for a few seconds then start playing again. Switching episodes is a pain it’s doesn’t keep track of what episodes you have watched or where you stopped an episode at should you close the app and come back later. The options on the phones and iPads are hard to get to and navigate. The fast forward and rewind is a complete guess as to where the app will actually stop the episode. You might get close to where you want to be but most likely will end up somewhere completely random. You can try to move the little slider at the bottom of the screen but when you stop it where you wanted it to be, it will move itself forward or backwards to where ever it wants to be. I have never seen a more poorly made interface for iPhones or iPads. I’m not sure if it works well on other devices but even on my television it’s still got a lot of the same issues. I bought the year subscription and should nothing be done for yet another year to fix these issues I will not be renewing. I spend more time trying to get it where I want, working like I want, and remembering what episode I was on then actually watching anything.

2 years ago, 128493629573

Terribly designed app with no fix in sight

If you look through the reviews (going years back) the issues I list below are still here from years prior. The developer seems to have no interest in doing anything to improve the user experience. You would think with HIDIVE having a parent company like AMC Networks that the app would have been overhauled at some point but that doesn’t seem to be the case. HIDIVE is clearly at the bottom of their list of things to invest in. Is the app technically functional enough to where you can watch content, yes but that’s where the positives end. None of the anime apps out there are particularly stellar but the HIDIVE app takes the cake for being so bad that the service is not worth paying for. There is no skip forward or back 5-30seconds options (you have to manually seek everything), no way to see from the series page where you left off or what the last episode you watched was. Nothing syncs from where you last watched on iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. Most of the time, at the end of an episode it will not auto play the next episode. The Apple TV app is slightly worse in that when you start an episode it goes to a loading icon that you then need to pause and then hit play to start every single episode.

2 years ago, bianogud

Could beat lot better

I'm not asking for Netflix quality streaming or anything but, this is pretty bad and it could be better if they just changed a few things. 1. Why is the subtitles automatically Portuguese? Why can't it stay in English, especially when I have to constantly set it to English? 2. I'm signed onto 3 devices, 2 TVs and my phone but, I'm the only person watching because I'm the only person who watches animes in my house. Why can't it remember which episode, settings or where I left off when I switch devices? I'm not watching on two devices at once as it's either the TV or the phone, mostly on my phone though. 3. Subtitles are too high when watching on my phone and could you please put black borders around the subtitles itself so that it doesn't have that annoying black bar around it when I'm watching on my phone? It's not like this when watching on the TV. 4. Please see # 1 as it's super annoying every time I switch devices or if I have to take a break only to come back and it can't remember where I left off or what settings it's on. This is especially annoying if I'm in the middle of an episode and then come back only to have to remember what episode I left off on and exactly where I left off as it'll start off at the very beginning.

7 months ago, agriffon

Finally an update… but made it worse?

(Iphone 15 review)After years of the same clunky app the finally drop something new only to make it as bad, if not worse then the original! They finally added a forward and reverse 10 seconds button but removed the skip to next episode button. To remedy the lack of a skip episode button they decided to completely change Auto play and did so for the worse. They removed the next episode buttons and the little pop up at the end that gives the countdown to the next episode. You need to go in and turn on autsostart in the options do to play next episode but that hasn’t worked on anything I’ve watched so far and at to end of the episode they added a restart button because that’s what no one need. It doesn’t take you to the shows page anymore when you exit just previously watched shows are listed (in case you want to watch the same thing over again and not be able to watch the next episode). Now in order to manually go to the next episode you need to go back to the Home Screen, searching for the show again and then select the next episode. Why they used designers who apparently never watched tv on their phones in their lives before is beyond me. Half a decade of bad reviews and this was the could come up with as a fix? Disappointed.

9 months ago, McCthulhu

Oh you people giving up just because the app doesn’t work.

This isn’t entirely an app review, but a means of pointing out that the app is entirely unnecessary for Hi-Dive. I have been using HD entirely via their website on an iPad Pro with Firefox as a browser and have had very little drama. My only issue came about when the full screen view would drop the subtitles, but a couple of clicks brought me to the fix of enabling subtitles in Apple Accessibility settings. The website allows scrolling and jumping in ten second increments and setting whatever language/subtitle pairings you want from available translations. I have found everything to work just as well or better than CR’s app, just that it’s web browser based instead. The quality hasn’t wavered below max and I have had only one stoppage, probably due to my own family maxing out our home bandwidth at the same time. For all those people saying don’t bother with HD just because of the app, you are doing your fave shows a disservice because those licensing fees go back to the studios, animators and mangakas. If you want your Gushing Over Magical Girls, pay for it so they’ll make more, but just use the website, the app is definitely problematic and has the shortcomings others have mentioned.

2 months ago, asteiger0721

It’s just downright sad at this point

I canceled my subscription, but when they finally got around to doing an app update I fell for it. Since then they’ve done a couple “updates”, and nothings any better. First removed profiles, forced you to have a watchlist, and now profiles are back but still have to have a separate watch list. Then they hide the watch list, shows just disappear constantly, shows duplicate, watch history can’t keep up and show a reliable history. If you can find the correct episode in your history you left off on, it refuses to go to the next episode, it won’t show the next episodes, and you can’t manually select the next episode from your hidden watch list bc the show listing just disappeared. If you can locate the show you were watching, and try to add it to your watch list, it’ll tell you it’s already in your list but still won’t show it. It can’t be super difficult to make a functional app like this bc Crunchyroll finally added profiles, and they actually work like you’d expect. The only thing keep this from being a 1 star is the decent shows they have listed.

6 months ago, SirkSelab

Sloppy app

While it appears that HIDive has some interesting content (5 total shows of interest), the app is one of the jankiest I’ve ever come across. Most of the 3 functions do not work. Yes, there are only 3 functions and only 1 of them actually work. It’s not really worth getting into the details, suffice to say, it is not very good. The watchlist is broken, thus you cannot add any shows to it. The slider to choose shows is wonky and slips onto the wrong show often; causing the user to restart the search to for the actual show they attempted to watch. Add that the entire app crashes on AppleTV every 6th time you click on anything, and the fact that many shows appear as ‘no content’, when you click on them. It’s just bad. See ‘watchlist’ comment above…as this means you have to start a full scrolling search all over again, while hoping the scroller doesn’t choose a different show again, to restart the process (which ultimately causes the app to crash). Honestly; this app doesn’t deserve 1 star. It’s just beyond broken and from what I see of other comments, it remains broken. This app reminds me of my 9 year old making their first app. Except this one is charging money for what appears to be an app created by a distracted child. This app is not ready for market by any means.

2 years ago, diwen.gg

So bad, painful

No skip button, no rewinding nor forwarding button, you have to use the line to actually move to a spot, but it’s so bad because it’s non-compatibly or non friendly with iPhones. The line is literally right at the bottom of the phone, RIGHT NEXT TO THE HOME BUTTON. The AMOUNT of times I tried to scroll, but moved the home button accidentally before I can even scroll through the timeline. EVEN when I finally start scrolling, sometimes I miss some parts so I go back to rewind a little, after doing do, it goes back to where I was left off, like for example: I’m at 8:42 for an anime, and I wanted to go back like 5-10 seconds, it freezes, then after successfully scrolling to my destination, IT GOES BACK TO 8:42. Then I have to repeat the entire process after another. HIDIVE, please just sign a license to VRV again because that was so much better to watch it on. Or at least update ur app to make it more friendly to use. Did I forget the next or previous episode buttons? Did I also forget the “resume” watching doesn’t do squat at all? There all terrible. Please listen to our feedback and work on your app. Stupid animes that are signed with HIDIVE, I really wish that wasn’t the case. I’d rather use a pirated site (I hate doing this) then using this garbage

12 months ago, Upsetperson250

Horrible app

I never write reviews in the App Store, never. But I had to for this one. This app is horrible, the fact that the last time they updated this app was 2 years ago (according to the App Store) and the app is still running surprises me. I’m glad I used the free trial instead of paying for a year like I wanted to. Loading up a video shows up an infinite loading wheel, until I click play, stop and the play would the video load and play. It takes forever for the show to load the episode list, bunch of errors. And this is with 1-2 hours of app use. How does apple with their strict rules let an app developer not update their app as it can potentially cause privacy risks. How does crunchyroll even allow a mediocre anime streaming service to get rights to certain popular anime? Hidive must put all its money on having show in their apps and barely enough to keep the app alive Edit: I wish I could give it 0 stars, app is getting worse by the day. Doesn’t show episodes you’ve watched, can’t put anything on queue, and now I can’t pause. If I pause, the stream will continue to play with no sound. When I finish an episode the video will close out and the episode sound will play in the background. I have to close the app to watch the next episode

4 years ago, Tw!tch13

Cheated out of free trial

Listen, I could ignore the terrible quality and playback issues that one has to put up with while using your app. I could even deal with the poor functionality of your app in it’s entirety because I am aware that it is very new. However, what I will not accept is signing up for a subscription, having your app crash while I am watching something and then telling me I need to subscribe again. I happened to get the 30 day free trial which my Apple account shows is STILL active, but for whatever asinine reason my account within your systems does not register this anymore. I’m not paying you up front for something that I was given a 30 day free trial for. I would like this fixed because what I am not going to do is pay for an app that does not have the functionality nor the quality to justify the money you ask for. This was the only streaming service I could find that allows me to watch a dubbed season of a specific show so I was willing to deal with the bugs while you guys figured it all out, but not this. There isn’t even a way to contact someone about my issue and your help page is unhelpful, which is why I am taking to this review. I’m not paying you when I was told I’d get it free for 30 days, it’s literally only been 30 minutes.

6 months ago, RogueWave7

Better, but only slightly

Many of the problems I listed off before were addressed, unfortunately there are still a lot of problems that need to be fixed. -Episodes won’t leave the continue watching bar, even after you finished the episode. (It doesn’t even go to the next episode.) - If you’re watching a dubbed episode, there’s no way to get just the subtitles for the onscreen text. (Which is more than a little distracting.) - Some stuff just isn’t available. - I wish there was a better search bar. If you’re looking for the more "cultured" stuff? You have to remember the show or movie by name. UPDATE: Sometimes the episode will leave the continue watching for if you finish the episode, and then immediately close the app. But it’s not consistent. The fact that I had to backdoor it like that, isn’t a good look. - On the website, Please bring back the schedule. The coming soon section doesn’t tell us what days the new episodes come out or when new dubbed episodes come out, which the schedule always did. - There’s no way to report something if you find anything wrong.

5 months ago, zeke444444

Subtitles

Since HiDive is pretty inexpensive compared to other streaming services I’m not going to slam it for having some shortcomings. I just want to say if any employee of HiDive sees this please put black outline in your subtitles! It’s hard to read with most colors because they start blending in with the show. I have to have it on red or yellow maybe white depending on the show and brightness. It’s only a problem i have on your site, when i went to Crunchyroll i tried to pay attention to the difference and with their white subtitles they have black outlining. And it may not sound like a big difference but it’s huge, a massive difference. I have to pause or literally switch colors in between scenes sometimes for HiDive just to see what they’re saying. With the black outline i can read and watch comfortably without ever having to pause. So please for the love of god please!!!! Change the way you do subtitles! It would make the viewing experience so much better!

7 months ago, 31Rev

Finally, an update!

There is FINALLY an update, a major one at that. It’s not perfect, however I still am giving this a 4 stars simply because many of the issues that made the app unusable have been fully or somewhat addressed. The 4 stars is my appreciation for finally fixing the app, and to hopefully encourage future fixes to make it better. As of the March 7 update the app is in an actual usable state whereas previously it was a contender for worst iOS video streaming app. My observations so far are below. Positives: -There is now an option to skip/rewind 10 or 30 seconds (FINALLY) -You can look at multiple seasons of a series now with the ‘Season’ dropdown button, versus previously the dropdown did not work and you were only able to access other seasons on the browser version. -The continue watching actually works. -The appropriate sub language is always active (previously I would always get Spanish subs despite having English selected). -I don’t randomly get errors while trying to watch a video. -The overall layout and design is more friendly. Negatives: -If I want to look at the list of episodes of a series I am currently watching, I can’t do it from my “Continue Watching” list, I have to exit to the main menu and search for it. -I am on iPad with a keyboard, and the skip/rewind/pause do not work with the keys, they only work by touchscreen. -You can’t remove items from your ‘currently watching’… or at the very least I haven’t been able to figure it out.

1 year ago, Barbarian King 2.0

Atrocious UI

I downloaded this app to be able to watch some shows that are only available on here and have been frustrated from the moment I started the first episode. The UI (user interface) is absolutely abysmal, there is no 10 second skip button, no next episode option so you will have to back out and select the next episode every single time, if you pause or open up a notification it will go back around 5 sec and can become really annoying. It also does not save which episodes you have already watched whenever you close out the app, so you either have to write it down or try to put it to memory. I, also, stream anime on both Funimation and CrunchyRoll and the basic interfaces on those apps are not even a thought on this one. If it wasn’t for the couple of shows that are exclusive to this app I would 100% recommend finding somewhere else to watch anime, especially with how limited it is on here. But I can saw with certainty, if they do not make major changes to their app then it will die out to the much better apps on the market as, at least for myself, I will cancel my subscription as soon as I finish the shows I’m watching.

7 months ago, Blizzard9344

The App Overhaul that Saved the Company

I’ve always loved HIDIVE’s selection of anime. Various shows like Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Oshi No Ko, DanMachi, etc. There was always one humongous problem however, and that was the horrendous, laughable app that HIDIVE refused to fix. The interface was full of bugs, painfully slow, and difficult to navigate. The new app overhaul, as of March, 2024, fixed this issue completely. Not only are things easier to access, but the app itself is much smoother, more organized, prettier, and genuinely just cooler. I appreciate that HIDIVE finally decided to put in the work to make their app, the very thing that every single user accessed in order to view their anime on the platform they’re paying a subscription for. I wholeheartedly believe this will assist in making HIDIVE a genuine competitor to Crunchyroll, and I truly hope that HIDIVE continues to make the great decisions it’s been making in the past 12 months. Cheers to you, HIDIVE, you’re finally moving up.

1 month ago, Andrew.VS

Updated review

First, I am using Hidive app on my Apple TV. In the recent year or so the app is getting better. From completely unusable - it finally became usable. Yes, it crashes one or twice a day. Yes, if you go home on Apple TV and then back to the app - it enters a “Reload loop” restarting the last episode you were watching. Yes, it sometimes stops at the end of an episode and doesn’t let you switch to the next one. But in the rest 60% it works! And that’s something. My biggest gripe at the moment is that there is no separate option to display subtitles for Japanese text displayed in the anime. It is either all the subtitles or none. For dubs all subtitles are annoying. But with no subtitles it’s hard to understand the plot twists without reading the text that is often shown in Japanese. I wouldn’t be bitter about lack of this option if the subtitles weren’t classified already at their end. Hidive service backend knows which subtitles are for voice and which are for text. Then why don’t you make an option to see just the text subtitles? I will gladly update my rating and review after this is implemented.

1 year ago, StarryArcana

Looks terrible

The UI for this app needs a huge improvement thats for sure. It’s hard to navigate around and to even save/favorite a series (which is impossible to do unless you have a subscription which I find silly because while I understand not being able to watch any episodes without a membership, at least let me save the anime I want to watch later if I ever do plan on subscribing in the future), or find your OWN watchlist. The most you’ll find is your recently watched series above all the other anime listed. Whats worse is that this app has NOT been updated for possibly over 2 years… (Which is unfortunate because they have a lot of good anime on their service…) This rating is solely for the app only. As I have not used the desktop version of this streaming service, I have no idea if they just favor the desktop version more because its easier for them to handle, or they just simply hate their mobile platforms… If they ever plan on updating the app and revamp the entirety of it, I think that’ll convince me into wanting to subscribe to this service.

1 year ago, progresscity

Run. Run far away.

I have never — NEVER — experienced such a poorly designed streaming app. This may sound unbelievable, but is literally impossible to watch anything beyond the first season of a show on a TV. Airplay DOES NOT WORK period, and when you try to cast anything from the second season, it will just play the first episode of season 1, no matter what you do. I work in software development and I assume either they have a very small, overwhelmed, and probably underpaid (like one person) development team, OR they have a team of extremely incompetent developers. Truly, unbelievably bad and I can't believe I've spent money on this. I urge you to seek other ways of watching these shows, even if it means waiting for the bluray. It will be worth it to save yourself the headache and frustration. Edit: I just noticed the app has not been updated IN TWO YEARS! That's a lifetime in mobile app development!!! I take back what I said, I think they have ZERO developers at this point and are just trying to make a cheap buck while their app and website are held together with duct tape and a prayer. Any review giving more than 1 star is being unbelievably generous. This app is rubbish.

4 years ago, Cody42585

Has more bugs than the notell motel.

Rarely works for any of the titles. And when it doesn’t the video formatting is terrible. All of the negative reviews are spot on. And their app team doesn’t seem to give a crap about fixing it. I love pretty much all anime and that’s what got me to jump at the subscription, however this is the worst streaming service I’ve tried. I feel like a moron for jumping at the discounted year subscription. Most titles aren’t available through any app not just iOS. The ones that are won’t play. “Stream not found”. Customer service is a joke. “We’ve tried to recreate the issue but haven’t had any luck.”, is their standard response. I’ve tried the apps on multiple devices from iPads to Xbox to play stations. All have terribly clunky video streaming when it works. Constantly having to delete the apps and reinstall. No way to just restart a video from the beginning. It’s the modern equivalent of having to rewind a vhs. This isn’t some new technology. Video streaming has been up and running for over a decade. The beta for Netflix was 100% better than this. At this point it feels like they are just jerking people around. Definitely not renewing my subscription.

4 years ago, Doshgoneit

App vs. website

Unfortunately, there is a huge difference when it comes to streaming on the website versus streaming on the app. AppleTV and iPhone apps don’t actually allow all the shows in the library to be seen. You’re totally missing out on a lot more content and you’re better off watching it from a computer or going to the website as an alternative. I complained about it a few times and every time the HIDIVE crew actually responds to me they just say something along the lines of not having the full rights for the apps. Something about it being more expensive on their end. What kind of crap is that? Hiding shows that we actually paid for is almost messed up. If you logon through a browser, the whole library is exposed for you to watch. I wouldn’t be as upset if you can at least see the whole list whether your using an app or browser and just not allowing playback if they felt like it. Something about hiding the fact that we have access to more anime that we paid for seems a little shady.

4 years ago, Goonpocalypse

Not without faults, but worth it

I would say this is the best anime app when compared to Funimation or Crunchyroll. There are a lot of common sense features that are offered here that the other two lack. I feel like this company cares about anime whereas the others care more about business. That said, this app isn’t perfect. It regularly “forgets” what episode I’m on in a series which isn’t a big deal for some but is for others. The cast feature also needs to be enabled before starting a video which I count as a minor inconvenience when moving from one room to another. The most disappointing part about this app actually isn’t their fault but how Apple has stunted them by giving them the ultimatum of hiding half of their shows or losing their app altogether on the platform. The fact that Apple is playing favorites with the other anime apps is nothing short of disgrace. All in all, despite the shortcomings, I love this app, I love the value and am happy to continue my support as they grow and improve.

3 years ago, — L

Only One Star

I never write reviews for apps but HIDIVE has won the opportunity. They have succeeded in creating a very mediocre app with horrible functionality and effectiveness. The interface and service of this app is just extremely terrible. I created an account and purchased their monthly subscription in order to watch the english dub version of ’Haikyu’, but quickly realized that I shouldn’t have. Firstly, I tried login in (to the app) soon after signing up, and it wouldn’t let me log in when all the credentials were 100% correct. I had to change my password and it still wouldn’t let me sign in after countless times (and multiple devices). Luckily I decided to take a look at the reviews and decided to log into the website, and fortunately I was able to login. But still the problems didn’t stop, after finding the show and deciding to watch it on the tv… both the website and applications wouldn’t connect with my AirPlay tv. I get that the app/website might not support it but if you're going to have a subscription based service at least make it more accessible for users to use…

5 years ago, rey-zero

Amateurish Beta App

Sentai has licensed some great shows, and I have to admit it disappoints me for both the dub quality and because of the execution on this app. I understand there are restrictions and limitations on their ability to deliver on the former, but there is almost no excuse for the latter. While other apps allow you to jump forward or back in 10 or 15 second increments, that option is missing. Additionally, the progress/scrub bar is situated in such a way that it activates my menu bar. I have noticed another issue as well: some multiple-season shows are not accessible under the "season" menu and have to be located individually. Oddly enough, the first season shows as "Season 1" and the second season shows as "Season 2", so I think it might be dirty data causing the seasons to not be grouped together (likely because the titles are slightly different between the seasons). Lastly, why put a help section with an "About the App" tab only to direct the user to go to the site? Why not load the app info within the app? The app feels like a beta that has not fully baked and it causes a lot of frustration as a result.

2 months ago, JustGoWithIt21

Listen to the people who keep you in business.

I don’t understand why this company won’t listen to its customers. There’s a reason why this app/streaming service has a 2* rating. I do love that they tried to update/fix their old interface but they haven’t fixed any of the issues plaguing this newer interface. How are you going to compete with other streaming services if you don’t fix yours. If you would take time and read these reviews you’ll know what to fix. You could easily hire someone for a few thousand dollars to fix this interface/app/website. This is why your app/website/steaming service is not doing so well, it’s because you won’t listen to the people who keep you in business. I just don’t understand why you won’t fix this, it’s been months since your newer user interface/app/website. Just a few issues that I will list; still clunky; continue watching;doesn’t remember what I’ve already watched; no likes/rating;no comments like old Crunchyroll; interface navigation and many more. Just read your reviews.

1 year ago, ZThurston

Just terrible, should sell the rights to any other company

I never write reviews, I hate the process and think my opinion usually is one sided. This app is soooo bad that it makes me not want to watch any of the great anime on it. I have spent the last 25 minutes trying to get subtitles back on. They just disappear mid episode for 0 reason. Want to skip 15 seconds? Good luck. Want to back up a minute cause a huge thing happened and you didn’t quite get all the details? Lol good luck trying. No fast forward button, no rewind button. I try to use the bar at the bottom and it is so terrible to use, I can’t even drag it without swapping apps. Then when you do get it, the time doesn’t update so you are blindly moving it hoping you find the right time stamp. Spend 15 minutes finding the right spot, press play, boom reset to where you started for 0 reason. This app is actually terrible to use. Unless you are a die hard fan like sadly I am, avoid this app at all cost. They don’t deserve your money and you are better off finding the anime somewhere else.

3 years ago, eda521

Difficult to Use

I like HIDIVE in general, but the app is INCREDIBLY difficult to use. There are no fast forward/rewind buttons at all (whereas most streaming apps have advanced far adopted the double-tap to rewind/fast forward). Moreover, the timer bar is so close to the bottom of the screen, that even using your finger to fast forward/rewind is pretty impossible because it just moves the whole video. On top of that, it doesn’t always LET me rewind/fast forward. I’ve spent so much time trying in vain to use my finger to move the button thing on the itty bitty timer bar, only for it to automatically go back to the point in the show I was trying to move away from. It got to the point where I just logged in on my computer to restart the episode. The only other thing I don’t like is how big the icons for the shows are when you’re browsing. I think bigger is okay, but I can only see like three shows at a time. Maybe if they were just a teensy bit smaller that would be better.

1 year ago, DogeKingChris

The Ui

I really hope that as I type this, the company behind this app is working on overhauling this app. I mean seriously, how UI this bad? The catalogue is great, and the way they sort everything is spectacular, but it’s when you actually click on a show that things get terrible. The app constantly flickers black and back, the continue watching button sometimes gets stuck on a single episode for all eternity, there’s no rewind or fast forward buttons, half of the screen doesn't work when you’re watching a show, so basically all of the buttons on the right side of the screen are useless, so basically there’s no way to change captions nor language while watching, you have to stop watching go back all the way to the settings to change them. This app is bad, but I love the website for PC, and the shows on it are great. I love everything about it except the actual video player and when you click on animes.

8 months ago, TheShadowArcher36

Who designed this interface?

It plays videos well. The quality of the video is fine, you can switch between English and Japanese easily as well as turning the subtitles on or off just as easily. That being said, that’s really the best quality of this app. It doesn’t have seem or go back 10-15 buttons so you have to scroll to rewind or fast forward. But then your scrolling doesn’t isolate the timeline button on the bottom so your phone thinks you’re trying to swipe through apps, so you end up back where you started in the video. When your video is over there isn’t a play next video option so you have to close the video and choose the next video manually. It’s hard to understand why they didn’t just put fast track or rewind buttons in the player. And you can only watch from full screen, or the seeking issue wouldn’t be as big of a deal. The app needs some serious tweaking to be competitive.

5 months ago, Jaz brooke

FINALLY AN UPDATE

Decide to cancel my subscription due to the pretty much impossible to use app, but after taking a look again, it seems they updated it three days ago! It now allows for easy moving through true video with skipping or rewinding 30 seconds. While the subscription did increase by a dollar, (which if I’m going to be real hidive, if you don’t pop off with more bangers like Oshi-no-ko and eminence in shadow, is pushing it… but hopefully this will allow for those to be made) the overall experience in perfectly usable. I’m not sure what happened with the profiles or I’m hoping I just haven’t figured that part out yet, but the search is much better (list series above everything else please hidive), the play back, the details, etc. it’s all just so much better. Time to enjoy🍿

4 months ago, Sirscary

Enough already.

At this point, I subscribe for about a month and a half at a time force myself to watch one or two shows, and then unsubscribe. Why? As every user has stated in reviews for as many years going back, the app and interactivity are absolutely awful. Hidive… you have one freaking job. That job is the experience you provide your customers. The experience is awful and people have been saying It’s awful for years now. I think I’ve even left a review two years ago, saying it was awful ( hoping that the time if enough people complained. Maybe you’d actually do something ) so… don't you think it’s time to freaking do something about it? Why don’t you have the balls to respond to a single one of the reviews discussing how bad your service is? At this point my goal and leaving a review is in hopes that it saves just about everybody else from wasting their time in a company who clearly gives no care about their customers and clearly is not even paying attention probably because they don’t care.

3 months ago, Jonkeau

getting better but still needs work

App is far better than it was before the update but it still needs some things: 1. Fix the broken “next episode” buttons. Many shows you can’t just watch the whole series one after the other because someone forgot to link the next episode. So for example you’ll be at the end of episode 4 and have to track down the anime’s series page, click on episode 5, and switch audio back to Japanese for subtitled enjoyment. 2. App seems to have problems making sure that your preferences (ex Japanese speech with English subtitles) are defaulted to on every episode of every show. 3. You need to add a list of shows with new episodes that just dropped to the homescreen, and a second list of shows with new episodes that are in your personal playlists. 4. Allow search to be sorted by most recent to have a new episode released.

2 years ago, Nobody1213

Lacking a lot of essential features of a streaming app

The HIDIVE app is not great. It lacks key features like a 10 second skip and rewind feature and an auto start to the next episode at the end. But that’s not even the worst part about it. It never keeps track of where you left off at in a show and when you go back to watch it sometimes puts it back on sub when you were originally watching dub. When you want to go to the next episode you have to pause and select it on the screen when it pops up. Speaking of pausing sometimes when watching sub I wanna pause so I can read the text that goes by too fast but you can’t do that because when you pause recommended videos pop up that cover the screen so you can’t see the text from the episode. The settings are atrocious not much help to find in there and last but not least the layout and just how things look feel cheap and lazy.

1 year ago, MMFQ Productions

The single worst anime experience money can buy

This app is by far the worst experience you can have watching anime. It has constant bugs and is missing critical features you’d expect from a free service. However, this service costs money. There’s no way to track your watched episodes, no way to quickly go back or forward in an episode, no customization for subtitles, the language frequently changes on its own for no reason, the subtitles randomly change languages for no reason, the next episode box plays a random (sometimes the same episode you were already watching) episode from the show. Those are just a few from the single day I’ve been using it. That isn’t including the abysmal interface, shows not showing that are available on the website, or the various other bugs I don’t want to type out. This isn’t just bad, it’s unusable. There are plenty of services out there. This is so bad, I’d advise doing anything other than giving this company money. It’s horrendous.

2 years ago, LilFischh

If you love anime don’t ever download this app

I’ve used this app for about all of 2 days and I absolutely cannot stand it. Nothing about this would ever make me think about using it again no matter what kind of anime I love will play on here. The player for videos is extremely unresponsive, the settings for your account even if made of the app must be adjusted on the website, it’s selection of anime is lacking at best and a dumpster fire at worst. The only things I considered watching were Call of the night and Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon IV and after watching the ladder of the two I cannot stomach using this service anymore. If you love anime do yourself a favor and don’t use this platform and find some other way to watch it. I will never use this again and make sure to never let anyone I know get scammed by paying for a subscription. If you want to know more problems then just look on reddit on r/HIDIVE and the very first post I saw was users complaining about everything wrong with this service

1 month ago, Random dude’s Input

Low effort App

The biggest complaint I have? I would have to say the inability to continue watching a show after I reopened the app. The show is in the “continue watching” area. But, it doesn’t go to the next episode after watching the current episode. Also, cannot get to the next episodes without looking up the main shows page. Cannot get to the main shows page through the episodes, you will have to search it back up. The “not connected to WiFi” means the mobile data preferences or permission keeps getting shut off randomly. The “currently watching” will also display multiple episodes of the same show, even if you finished said episode already. The app has improved some. It does look more modern and allowing profiles is good. My only advice is, if you are watching a show put it in a watch list so it is easier to find. It seems like they are trying to copy Crunchyroll, but aren’t doing a good job at it. If they could fix the watch history, and/or being able to access the main show page through episodes, it would improve the app drastically. With out these being available. It makes me question my if my subscription is worth it. Don’t ever underestimate users ease of use concerns. If it’s hard to use or pick up where you left off, then it’s probably not worth it.

3 years ago, Precious_75

It’s actually not that bad.

I originally downloaded the app because HIDIVE was removed from VRV so I didn’t really know what to expect from the app but I was pleasantly surprised. They have a section for all of their dubs and they have a switch to flip in the settings if you prefer to watch in English whenever it’s available. They also have an app available if you want to watch it on the tv such as ROKU. The only problems I’ve really come across are that some of the shows on and movies that are on tv aren’t on the phone app and vice versa and the queue doesn’t show all the shows you add. The other problem would be that there are no subtitles to translate the writing on the actual show like with “My Love Story” for example and there should be more colors to choose from for the subtitles other than yellow and white.

2 years ago, Logan4940

Has promise, but it’s currently more trouble than it’s worth.

So my biggest issue with this app is that absolutely nothing can be accessed without a membership. With other anime streaming services you can usually watch free with ads to make sure you have some shows there you really like, and then pay for a subscription to remove those ads. As far as I’ve explored the app before giving in, not a single thing can be watched without subscription. Which isn’t necessarily bad, its just a huge gamble since you have to pay before you can look at any of the content in detail, and even with a subscription it is kind of annoying to work. I give this two stars though because they do have really good exclusives, but if those shows were on any other service, then I’d likely avoid this app in its current state, but I think it does have some potential it just needs a lot of work done.

2 years ago, Gabrielmv214

Horrible

Look I got this app because some of my favorite anime are on it, but the user interface is so bad it’s almost not worth it. The subtitle situation is atrocious, they either blend in with the background or they’re floating in the middle of the screen. Fast forwarding or rewinding on a mobile device is nearly impossible since there aren’t dedicated buttons so you just end up dragging the screen around trying to move the small slider on the bottom and even when you happen to move the slider a little bit, it tends to rubber band back to where you just were more often than not. Pausing on the mobile app is bad too because it tends to jump you back a few seconds every time. It also only remembers your place in a show and which episodes you’ve watched like half of the time. There’s are simple things that can’t be that hard to fix as literally every other app you watch videos on has done it. I want to like this app so please do better.

1 month ago, BalorYt

Worse than I expect it

I’ll be honest I don’t care about this streaming service but because it has like three shows I want to watch and I refuse to pirate I gave it a shot . But this service is bad like you expect it to crash maybe once or twice but it crashed every single episode! Doesn’t work what so ever on Tv like if you try to put it on the tv it will give you an error . It only seems to work on the phone for some reason and why in the ever loving fudge do I want to watch on my phone when I’m at home? This service is just holding people hostage honestly because there are good animes on here you can’t even watch anywhere else because they have exclusive deals with them BUT IT DOESNT EVEN MATTER WHEN YOU CANT WATCH THE FREAKING ANIME ! its frustrating and I hate to wish this on any streaming site but its been like this for years now just cut your loses and end the site this is not clearly for you it will save alot of people time and money . Hope this keeps

2 months ago, ZhengA28

Terrible UI and Bugs

I just want to have a convenient and legal way to watch anime and support the shows but unfortunately Hidive just can’t seem to figure it out somehow. The homepage is a nightmare to navigate. It’s hard to search for what currently airing this season and finding the show you want to watch without having to go directly to search bar. Shows also don’t show up in watchlist from time to time, episodes that are watched don’t get marked as finished, home page not loading, etc. Additionally it would be really nice if there’s comment sections, likes/dislikes, and reviews to help improve user experience. I don’t mind Hidive having a limited library of shows, but with all the competition out there, if Hidive want people to watch anime on their streaming services, they better find a good development team or else people just going to flock elsewhere.

7 months ago, Arkric

MASSIVE NEW UPDATE in 3 YRS

WOW, they actually updated the app just yesterday and it is a MASSIVE overhaul. Took them 3 years, thought they forgot and gave up on their app lol. Funny thing is it went from version 1.12 to 2.2.6 and the 2.2.6 version has a “(73)” next to it. Almost looks like this 2.2.6 is a culmination of 73 updates they just forgot to publish on the app store over that last 3 year XD But regardless, while it isn’t as refined as other bigger streaming service apps, it is actually usable for the first time and is a giant step in the right direction. There is WAY too much to go over in one review so I highly recommend people come back and check out this new update and give their constructive criticisms on it. Hopefully it doesn’t take them another 3 years to deliver on everyone’s new pleas haha. Glad to see HIDIVE hasn’t forgotten about their mobile app lol.

2 years ago, DA Mister19747

Worst streaming app

HIDIVE is the worst, so many things wrong with it, no fast forwarding or rewind buttons so you have to scroll to the right spot, not to mention that on iPhone you can’t scroll at all because the home button is in the way, there is no skip episode button so you have to back out of the episode going back to the full episode page and selecting the next one, it also only barely work on iPhone as when you back out of an episode it glitches out and you have to wait for it to reload, HIDIVE is also very unresponsive to touch controls, you have to really tap on everything to get it to respond, this is a non issue for every other app I’ve ever used on iPhone, the only reason I got it was to watch a show that was only on HIDIVE, I will delete this as soon as I finish and never touch it again, the only time HIDIVE was ever good was when they were on VRV, but now they have the audacity to charge their customers for a really bad service

2 weeks ago, Garbage app, no unsubscribe

REALLY bad and scammy app

Ok… free first 7 days cool! And then… - searching was not good - watchlists clunky - autoplay didn’t seem to be working well so often I’d have to click drag up the episode list and then select the next one - episodes had no links or names of the main anime so if you wanted to go back to the main series and select an episode or even find out what an anime was from an interesting looking episode you clunkily searched, you couldn’t. You had to know the name and research it or go back to your watchlist…. -no continue button so if you want to continue watching a series it was weird and not easy. And worst of all…. When I went to go unsubscribe because of all the problems: 1) no unsubscribe button on app. It’s a lie. There is not one. 2) going to “delete account” pops up a warning that deleting the account does not stop billing and does not unsubscribe. It then provided incorrect directions on how to unsubscribe 3) tried to go on the website via phone and pc to see about unsubscribing there… guess what no unsubscribe button there because I made my profile on mobile it told me “managed by mobile app” and would not allow me to cancel 4) had to go into my phone settings, click my picture/Apple ID click subscriptions and cancel there. Lots of research to find that out XD Used to like high dive years ago… now it’s garbage

2 years ago, !912sAv!

This is quite possibly the worst anime app

I’ve had crunchy roll, funimation, vrv i’ve even used the free online anime website for years and none have been as annoying as this app. I don’t know if im an idiot, but here are some of the cosmetic issues. No skip buttons meaning you either have to manually scrub or sit through all parts. You can’t skip to the next episode so you have to manually exit start the next episode then manually change to dub if thats what you’re into. The queue doesn’t work you can’t delete things out of your queue. The app only saves your progress in an episode sometimes. Here are some good things though. They have separated categories for dub, its very easy to find anime and they have the languages clearly labeled outside of the episode. Its also the cheapest of all the anime, but to be fair I think they have the least amount of overall anime.

2 years ago, FrankT83

Fix Continue Watching Function

I’m halfway through my free trial and I’m not sure if I will continue after. Most of the time, the app does not remember which episode I am on and if it does and I select Resume, the playback stutters and I have to start over and fast forward. Also, you practically have to play 20 questions just to get to the episode you want. Select “Continue Watching” and you have to choose if you want to go to your last episode or the whole list. Select the last episode and it takes you to the wrong one so you have to start over. Once you finally get to episode you want it asks if you want to resume or start over. If you resume you get the problem I described above so you have to back out select start over and fast forward. It’s a real pain. I hope they fix it because I am enjoying the shows I have checked out so far.

3 years ago, Black-barron

Worst Streaming app I’ve ever used

After HIDIVE left VRV I figured I’d get the app as there are a lot of shows I liked that they had the rights too. However I couldn’t have made a dumber decision than to get an subscription for this. This app doesn’t have a skip forward option on videos it’s basically impossible to move the slider on the bottom to skip ahead which is infuriating to say the least. Also I’m not sure if there’s a way to change this but the subtitles are in the worst possible place almost dead center of the screen. I can understand from a business aspect that separating from VRV was a reasonable decision financially, however they should of stayed on VRV until they had a good app themselves. Also the website isn’t much better if at all honestly at least on mobile. Honestly never thought I’d say this but this might be the only time I recommend watching their shows on an unlicensed streaming website.

5 years ago, ThreeDee912

Needs way more polish

So this app “works” but feels very rough around the edges. I have the iOS subtitle settings at the recommended default and half the time the subs are reversed, with the second line of text displayed before the first line in a sentence. It uses its own video scrub/seek bar which is virtually impossible to position at the exact spot you want because it doesn’t tell update and tell you what time you dragged the bar to until you let go. There’s no easy 10/15 second rewind button, which other apps have and is even baked into the default iOS video player. I had to redownload the app recently to reset everything because a recent update made it stay at the initial loading screen forever. When looking at a show’s episodes, swiping from the left edge of the screen doesn’t go back a view, it always opens the hamburger menu which is frustrating. You have to move your finger all the way up to the back button. What’s even worse is when you’re on the main home screen, the behavior is reversed! Swiping from the left edge when you have shows in your queue doesn’t do anything! You’d expect the hamburger menu to open this time, but it doesn’t! You again have to reach up to the top left to tap the icon to see it. All of these small bugs and design issues really add up and make the app a horrible experience to use overall.

12 months ago, ymiyata3

The Most Terrible Streaming App Ever

The app is full of bugs. Is it functional enough that you can watch anime if you work around them? Yes, but it’s just so frustrating. I mainly use it on my Apple TV but every episode won’t play unless you pause once and play again after you first open the episode, and now on latest Apple TV OS I can’t pause anymore. When you pause it, it will just keep playing the anime without sound and you cannot unpause it once you are in that state. If you go back to the app’s main screen it will start playing the anime again for some reason and only way to get rid of that phantom background anime is to force restart the app and watch the episode all over again. It’s just a terrible app and I wish there is some developer looking at these reviews to at least fix some of these bugs so that app is at least worth the subscription fee that we are paying for it.

Description

Use HIDIVE to stream awesome content straight from Japan! From new shows like Ahiru no Sora, Food Wars!, Tsurune, The Promised Neverland and Land of the Lustrous to classics such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes, The Big O, Azumanga Daioh, Patlabor and Maid-Sama!, plus a growing collection of dubs, you’ll always find something to watch, all ad-free. (Titles vary by region) Dive right in by signing in to your existing HIDIVE account, or start a new one using your iTunes account. Plus, new subscribers can try before they buy with a 14-day free trial! Subscribers can also watch their favorite shows on Apple TV, iPad, desktop and other popular devices. HIDIVE In App Purchase Information: - Your payment will be charged to your iTunes Account upon confirmation of purchase. - Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is cancelled at least 24-hours before the end of the then-current billing period. - Your subscription includes full access to HIDIVE • English Dubs • Simulcasts • Exclusive Content • OVAs • DUBCAST℠ Editions • Movies • And more! - Your account will be charged $4.99 (for monthly recurring subscriptions) or $47.99 (for annual recurring subscriptions) for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the then-current billing period and each subsequent billing period until cancelled. - You can manage your subscription and cancel auto-renewal by accessing Account Settings in your iTunes account and following the instructions there. - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when a subscription to the service is purchased, where applicable. Terms of Use: https://www.hidive.com/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.hidive.com/privacy-policy