Channel 4

Terrible, terrible, terrible!!! Used to work fine. But every time I try to cast to my google chromecast I get a message saying, "A playback error occurred, re-cast to try again" It let's you watch the 3 minutes of adverts and then lo and behold, you can't watch your program. Pathetic that you can't even download the c4 app straight to the chromecast, when every other big name app is on there. If I could give zero stars I would!

App seems to get worse and worse! Very unreliable casting. Programmes frequently need to be restarted (meaning more ads!) Recent updates have introduced a random black square on the screen when casting. It doesn't go away when you dismiss the app, so you go to Force Stop only to find that it's neatly covering the ok button. Bottom line is that after each time I use the app I have to restart my phone. Poor user experience. It's a real shame because there's a huge amount of good TV on Channel 4.

Don't know what is wrong with Channel 4. This app has not been able to cast from Android app for months. It will play the adverts fine but flatly refuses to cast any actual content. They've finally launched an app for Chromecast but that is only barely useable. Again, the adverts play flawlessly but programmes keep freezing to the extent that they are almost unwatchable. Had a paid subscription for years but no point until the service actually functions.

Utter s h i t e Makes you watch a ton of adverts, crashes, then makes you watch a ton more adverts before not returning to where you were up to. You then try to skip forward to where you were up to and guess what... makes you watch a ton more adverts. And even then doesn't bloody work! And to add insult to injury casting F1 to TV doesn't work. They know about it, I've emailed them, as have many other people, yet they don't fix it.

They've finally fixed it so it kind of works for Chromecast with Google TV. A few of the initial bugs on Chromecast with Google TV have already been fixed, but there's a major omission in that you can't stream live TV. Given that I can stream live TV and restart live shows on my phone/tablet, it seems like a major omission that could surely be easily included. Given it took 4 years to even support Chromecast with Google TV, I won't hold my breath while waiting for live TV support!

What happened to the app? Used to work great on my phone, lately all I get is an error message that the programme is unavailable or unable to download data. Tried uninstalling and restarting but no luck, tried data instead of WiFi but no, not working at all. Might as well uninstall and save the space on my phone.

Have used the app for years. Still buggy. Now there's a streaming ad glitch, maybe linked to ad break length variation. An ad freezes on screen with up to a couple of mins of ad break left. If captions are on, those for the show's next part appear atop the ad graphic--no video from the show, zero audio, just captions, changing as if the show's on. Ad timer gets to zero, nothing happens. Captions go on. I have to back out of the stream and go back in. Ad break up to 3m 39s restarts. Annoying!

Can always manage to cast the adverts but then fails to cast the program you want to watch! Edit (12/09/24) Got better while but now back to normal with casting failure after ever ad so can't get to see the programme. Useless. Edit (07/01/25) still can't cast to Chromecast. Do your advertisers know they are not getting people watching C4 because your app does not work? Still useless.

Pros: Great selection of shows. Nice UI. Neutrals: A little heavy on the ads, but to be expected from a free TV app. Can't cast live to TV, again not unusual. Cons: *deep breath* Performance when casting to TV is utterly abject. Consistently dropping connection despite strong WiFi signal and fast connection. No 'next episode' function. No 'skip intro' function. Poorly coded error messaging. Hopeless in-app support. Whoever coded this thing should be fired.

We always want to watch a film or episode through the credits to the end; it's the best opportunity to absorb and reflect for the first time on the viewing experience. Hence, it's extremely frustrating to be forced after 10 or 15 seconds onto the next episode or related content, with no apparent way of preventing this behaviour. Please provide such a setting (or tell me where to find it). I know BBC iPlayer offers it. In the meantime, I can only give you a single star, though I would give more.

Just keeps CRASHING... I used to love watching some of the programmes, but I'm still hopelessly waiting for an update that will fix the crashes after each advertisement. The screen freezes on the last ad, while the program continues to play apparently, as the captions suggests. You have to exit the show and click to resume, which starts again with 3.5 mins of ads you already watched. Mind blowing that this app is so neglected and I won't be watching anything else until a fux is released.

Unfortunately programmes continue to play in the background of the 2nd & subsequent advert breaks then fail to restart when they're finished. Resulting in having to exit and restart the programme each time and endure another 3½mins of adverts. It's beyond frustrating and spoils my enjoyment of programmes! It has been happening for months and still not fixed. It's disappointing as there are many good things available on this channel.

Terrible, constant crashing (tablet and TV) and even logging me out during the same session several times (tablet). Doesn't remember what I was watching so I'm having to search every time I want to watch then try to find the episode I was on (on TV and tablet). Keeps skipping episodes so I have to guess what happened on the previous one. All the years of using this app since they brought it out, it has never functioned correctly.

On the whole the app works. However, on the occasion I want to watch anything live (and only on this occasion), it logs me out, and won't log back in due to server errors which is extremely irritating when you want to watch something live. Casting is completely useless, and has been for years. This is particularly annoying as the channel 4 app on my television is unable to restart live TV even though it is possible on all other devices.

I even asked Google why is the CH4 App so bad. It will tell you. A small quote "Technical performance: Many users report that the app is unreliable, slow, and frequently buffers or stutters during playback, particularly on devices like Amazon Firestick, Chromecast, and Samsung Smart TVs." Yep, especially when you're 3/4 through a programme, then the rest is unwatchable. After years of trying to get things to play it's now uninstalled and won't try again

Had intended to subscribe to get rid of ads so signed up to a free trial only to find loud trailers throughout episodes spoiling my enjoyment. The cut before and after trailers is amateurish with a few frames cut too early then repeated after the unwanted trailers. No skip recap, no skip intro, it's a dinosaur, it's appalling for a major and well established television company. If they ever decide to put trailers before and after episodes I might subscribe. It would be worth paying an extra quid

Great content but not easy to binge watch shows and it constantly forgets what I've watched already. shows that have been running a long time like come dine with me. or location, location, location, it would be nice if you could organise by season and play from earliest to latest episode. it's endless scrolling to get to some of the earlier ones.

poor app. interrupted viewing experience. when it goes to an advert break, your programme doesn't restart, just freezes on the last frame of the ad, so I have to click out of the show, restart and watch a new longer ad break when i leave the app, i get spammed with notifications that 'channel 4 is still working in the background' seem to only be taking on seriously low grade advertisers too, >90% sketchy gambling websites

Better than it was, but still can't show you a whole programme without crashing when it gets to an ad break (almost always), ending the episode part way through and starting the next one, or just randomly falling over completely. Other than that, excellent.

Any programme i watch gets stuck when the ads play. I watch the ads and then the screen just gets frozen on the ads meaning I have to close and reopen the programme and watch another set of ads. Very frustrating and I'm guessing just a tactic to get people to pay to go ad free.