Fubo Roku App Adds Background Playing, Faster Fast-Forward/Rewind, And More

As promised last week, Fubo has now started rolling out a new update for the Roku app which looks to further improve the user experience. The new update is rolling out as version 5.2 and is being billed as “significant update” for Roku app users.

What is arguably the most interesting improvement included in the update is the ability to continue listening to the current channel when returning from full-screen video to the Home screen or guide. While this was a feature previously available to Roku users, it was removed in a recent update.

Another notable improvement adds the ability to fast-forward or rewind at an even faster speed. According to the announcement by Fubo’s Chief Product Officer, Mike Berkley, this will make it easier for users to speed through longer recordings, including football games.

Here’s a rundown of all of the confirmed changes rolling out with v5.2 of the Fubo Roku app:

• The currently playing channel will continue to play in the background (audio only) when you return to the guide from full-screen video. This allows you to return to the home page or guide without losing the context of what is currently playing, similar to how it worked in v4.8. You can easily return to full-screen video by press-and-holding the Back button.
• We’ve added a preference to disable/enable the above continuous playback feature.
• We added a 4th and 5th fast-forward/rewind speed, to more quickly advance through long recordings, such as a 3-hour football game.
• When you open the app, it now remembers your last picked profile for 48 hours (extending it each time you open the app). For example, if you open the app every day, it will continue to remember your profile from your last session.
• We made performance improvements to increase the speed and responsiveness of the app.
• We made a number of additional enhancements and bug fixes.

The Roku v5.2 update follows the release last week of new updates for Fubo’s Android TV and Fire TV apps. For Fubo subscribers using an Android TV (including Google TV) or Fire TV device, the update rolled out as version 5.6 and included improvements to the Guide, My Stuff (Recordings), and video playback.