Quibi app review: works reliably, auto-flips between landscape and portrait, but no tablet-optimized mode, no family member profiles, and lacks a TV experience
A mobile-only video app was always going to be a hard sell — After months of publicity, Quibi — the mobile phone app that's centered …
The VergeChris Welch
Context & Ripple Effects
Quibi's launch-week review closes the loop on the Turnstyle feature Quibi previewed in January: the portrait/landscape auto-flip works as promised, and the app is reliable. But the review also catalogs what the phone-only product lacks at launch — no tablet-optimized mode, no family member profiles, no TV experience — which matters because Quibi priced itself as a premium subscription competing for household attention.
Launch-day subscribers get a dependable app whose one differentiator, Turnstyle, works — but households that want to watch on a TV or tablet, or share profiles, have no reason to pay $4.99/month for a phone screen.
Second-order effects
The missing TV and multi-profile support narrowed Quibi's funnel to single-viewer mobile users, a constraint visible in the weak trial conversion and in management's later consideration of a freemium model as a rescue option.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, premium video subscriptions are structurally unviable as mobile-only products: the services that survived Quibi's cohort compete on whole-household, multi-device reach, and a single-screen app can't price like one.
The trend: Short-form streaming is consolidating around multi-device household platforms, with Quibi's phone-only premium model standing as the category's clearest counterexample.
Yes, Quibi is truly a waste of $1.75 BILLION. Here's my hands-on/takedown/cathartic vent https://www.engadget.com/... The big takeaway: Nobody needs mobile only video. Please stop.
Just sampled Quibi offerings. Well-made and engaging stuff. Seems smart to bet on increasingly short attention spans and to not bet against Katzenberg. It remains to be seen if the financials can be made to work and how entering the marketplace duruing coronavirus impacts things.…
What's astounding to me is how far Quibi is going to stay mobile. There's NO AirPlay mirroring support, and certainly no Chromecast. My wife and I had to crowd around our phone to watch some of the shows, while our 55" OLED sat in front of us idle.
I have been watching Quibi shows for approximately two and one half Quibis and so far it's ... weird The rest of the world is like “we're shooting in our homes on our webcams, it's so intimate and human!” and Quibi is like HERE'S SIX MINUTES OF PUNK'D THAT COST A BILLION DOLLARS
Quibi's app is slick but the content feels slapdash. Its success will simply be a test of how many people forget to cancel their 90-day free trials. https://twitter.com/...
I've been using Quibi for a couple days. https://www.theverge.com/... I'm no entertainment reviewer, so I focused on the app itself. In short, it works as promised. Turnstyle is a clever trick — though the creative use cases for it aren't really in any of the launch shows yet. ht…
Why would you subscribe to Quibi when there's a wealth of content on services you already have? When YouTube has basically become a network filled with infinite amounts of content? So many questions
I wish Quibi would stop sending emails about its service. Can't airplay it to TV. While iPhone 11 Pro Max is a nice screen for mobile, doesn't make sense to make video service mobile exclusive. https://twitter.com/...
#Quibi just launched, let's see if they can land enough users to validate the $1.75B valuation - two sub options $4.99/mo w/ ads $7.99/mo no ads Netflix's trades at a 6.2x ttm revenue multiple ... so Quibi needs ~44M subscribers after the 90 day free trial https://twitter.com/...
Quibi has launched, but I'm sorry to report that it does not service my current lifestyle need to find high-quality mobile phone entertainment that I can consume during the six-second commute from my home to my office.
Quibi stands for “quick bites” and #TheNow is the show I'm in. Season 1 was directed by the Farrelly Brothers & stars @dhlovelife Dave Franco, Bill Murray, @OsheaJacksonJr, @JimmyTatro. I play a tow truck driver w/purple hair. Download Quibi app here: https://apps.apple.com/... h…
Incredibly excited to launch @Quibi into the world at midnight tonight! It's free for 90 days, so you've got nothing to lose. Check us out. “Two Veteran C.E.O.s Risk $1.8 Billion on a Streaming App. In a Pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/...