Apple’s iTunes Movie Trailers app and website no longer serve the latest Hollywood trailers, which you can now watch on the company’s TV app (or YouTube, of course).
iTunes Movies Trailers for iOS was bumped to version 2.0 in the App Store earlier today, and the update has effectively killed all options and tabs in the app.
Instead, you’re greeted with a message saying the “Apple TV app is the new home of iTunes Movie Trailers,” with no other interactions possible within the app.
Apple discontinues the iTunes Movie Trailers app
The message is accompanied by an Open button that takes you to a new section within the TV app to browse and watch the latest trailers for upcoming Hollywood flicks. This didn’t come out of the blue—a few weeks ago, iTunes Movie Trailers began displaying a banner to users announcing the forthcoming change.
If you don’t yet see the a new section dedicated to movie trailers within the TV app, you’re advised to check back in a few days. This global change impacts all users, but such things are often rolled out gradually, so have patience.
Apple hosted trailers on the iTunes Movies Trailers website at trailers.apple.com, but the URL now redirects to web previews of movie trailers in the Apple TV app.
How to watch movie trailers in the Apple TV app
You can find a dedicated section with movie trailers within the Movies section under the Store tab in the Apple TV app on your devices.
- Open the TV app on your device.
- Hit the Store tab and select Movies at the top (iOS, iPadOS) or click Movies underneath Store in the sidebar (macOS).
- Scroll halfway down and click the Watch the Latest Trailers heading.
- Click the thumbnail for the trailer you’d like to watch. You can also click the Movie & TV Trailers banner at the top to view additional content.
At post time, the TV app only listed 32 movie trailers. The discontinued app gave you access to hundreds of movie trailers and some features missing from the TV app, like ticket information, sorting options, release schedules, search, etc.
If it wanted, Apple could build similar capabilities for movie trailers into the TV app. Given the current nature of the software, however, we don’t think that’ll happen.
On the plus side, movie trailers could get a bigger exposure as the TV app is also available on streaming boxes, gaming consoles and smart TVs.
A short history of the iTunes Movie Trailers app
The iTunes Movie Trailers app served movie trailers at a time when high-definition video on computers wasn’t commonplace.
With it, you could browse and watch upcoming movie trailers, clips and featurettes. But iTunes Movie Trailers was much more than a dumb app to play some videos. With it, you could find showtimes near your location, get information on buying tickets, check out a year-long calendar of movie releases, etc.
Over the years, the app received bug fixes and occasional new features.
In 2014, for example, it gained support for critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and notifications for shows to be released in theaters. The last update was in November 2017, when it gained support for displaying the Apple Watch app icon.