- I do a lot of videos about which Roku apps to download.
The best ones, the best free ones, the best hidden gems,
or whatever.
But today, it's all about
which Roku apps I'm gonna be deleting.
Because, frankly, my Roku menu is getting a bit out of hand.
I've got 106 items and I probably use,
oh, maybe 15 of them regularly.
Now, having lots of options is great,
but on the other hand,
it is nice to declutter every once in a while.
So today, we're gonna talk about
which apps I think (clicks tongue) need
to get the ax off of my Roku and maybe off of yours too.
Let's dive in.
(upbeat music)
Thanks for joining me today, everybody.
If you like what you see here, if you enjoy this video,
then go ahead and give it a like, don't forget to subscribe,
and tune in for the live streams on Friday.
I'll be back on Friday at 2:00 PM Eastern,
and I'm gonna be doing a follow up to this video.
And so today, we're just kind of getting the ball rolling
on this cleanup on my Roku device,
but I'll continue this in the live stream.
We'll delete even more apps
and we can argue about (chuckles) that in the comments.
So, I hope to see you there.
Now, as we get started deleting apps,
keep in mind that I'm not deleting these
because they're bad necessarily.
A lot of these apps are good apps.
I just, you know, maybe have things covered elsewhere
in a different app.
For example, I've got a few music apps on here.
Now, I use Spotify.
I've got Spotify Premium.
I've got it all logged in on here.
So, I don't necessarily need these other two apps.
I think I will keep iHeartRadio
because it is nice to have access to the live radio stations
every once in a while,
maybe I'm trying to catch a sporting event,
maybe I just want something on in the background, whatever.
But iHeartRadio, I'm gonna keep.
Pandora, I'm gonna go ahead and get rid of.
Now again, maybe you don't want to,
maybe you're a big time Pandora user.
But if you have Spotify on there,
then you can go ahead and get rid of that one.
But to get rid of an app,
I'm gonna press the Star key here on my Roku remote
and go up here to Remove channel.
So Pandora, goodbye.
I never used you.
Similarly, if I scroll down on my list here,
I've got a few cable channels that frankly I don't use,
because if I do want to watch them,
I can watch them on a live TV streaming app.
Like USA Network,
I've got that on Sling TV.
So, I don't really need that anymore.
Let's go ahead and remove that.
I can do the same thing with Bravo and MTV as well.
Generally speaking, with a lot of these cable channels,
like I said, I get this covered elsewhere.
Usually through a live TV app, maybe something else,
but I just never find myself logging into those.
So, off they go.
Or how about some repeats?
Speaking of music apps, let's go back.
We've got music video apps like Vevo and XITE.
Now, I highlighted these in a hidden gems channel,
I think a little while ago.
But as I noted in that video, these are both the same.
And I don't just mean similar.
I mean, they are the same.
So, there's really no point in keeping them around.
I like having them on here
so I can throw up some music videos if we need them,
but I only need one.
So, I'll keep Vevo and let's get rid of XITE.
(lively upbeat music)
Another one that I've highlighted a couple of times
on some hidden gems of videos
is Baby Boomer TV and Baby Boomer Cartoons.
But the thing is,
all of these Baby Boomer Cartoons
are contained in Baby Boomer TV.
So if I pop into this app,
yeah, I've already got Superman, and Popeye, and Betty Boop,
Three Stooges, whatever, that's all in there.
Plus, all of the other stuff that comes with Baby Boomer TV.
So in this case,
we really don't need the Baby Boomer Cartoons app.
We only need one of 'em.
If you really just want the cartoons,
you prefer those old cartoons
and you don't care about the TV,
then hey, maybe you switch those (chuckles) up
and you don't need the Baby Boomer TV.
And then, there are some other repeat channels.
So, Pluto TV I talked about recently,
I've kind of fallen in love with Pluto TV
in the last few weeks.
I quite like it.
Go check out my review on it.
I think it's the best free live TV streamer out there.
So Pluto TV is great,
but we don't need the other ones
that kind of mimic what it does.
So, Xumo and Stirr are both kind of Pluto TV imitators.
They're both good
and I have highlighted them before.
There's a reason they're here on my Roku.
I just found that the more I used Pluto,
the less I ever logged into the other two
until for the last couple of weeks or so,
I've never logged into these two.
And I don't think I will again for a while if ever.
So let's go ahead and get rid of Xumo
(lively upbeat music continues)
and we can get rid of Stirr as well.
In a similar boat, we've got Tubi,
which is kind of a Netflix imitator.
Instead of a live TV imitator, it's a Netflix imitator
and we don't need everything that imitates that.
So Crackle, for instance,
I haven't logged into that in months.
So, let's go ahead and remove Crackle.
And we can remove Vudu as well.
Vudu is interesting because it's the app
that used to have really great video quality compared
to other apps out there,
but the other apps have kind of closed that gap.
And so, Vudu now what you can do with it,
it's primarily for renting stuff or you can come up here
and get a few free titles as well.
But if I'm being honest,
most of the free titles that are available on here,
hmm (chuckles) in my opinion, not really worth it.
Like I said, I never find myself logging in here anymore.
So, let's go ahead and get rid of Vudu.
Anything I want to rent,
I can usually do on either Amazon or Google Play.
I don't think I've used anything else for a while.
So, Vudu can go.
If you like cooking shows and food channels,
that sort of thing,
then Eater and Bon Appetit are both good options.
However, for my money,
I'll take Bon Appetit
because they do have a little bit more
in terms of how-tos recipes, that sort of thing.
So, Bon Appetit is a little bit better that way.
So when I'm watching TV and I want some food content,
usually for me it's...
I'm going to lean a little bit more
toward the how do I actually do these things
instead of just the stories about them.
So, Eater which kind of concentrates more
on that documentary style stories about food,
for me, it can go.
Maybe you (chuckles) would be the opposite
or maybe you'd wanna keep both.
Switching over to kids' content,
I was on the hunt a few months ago for some great kids apps.
And I found some,
but because I subscribe to Disney Plus and Netflix,
they have a lot of great content on there
and we've got the LEGO Channel, which my kids do like.
There are a few others
that have kind of fallen by the wayside.
I'm going to keep PBS KIDS because I want to get them hooked
on that again at some point.
But we can go ahead
and get rid of a free service like Kabillion.
This is for kids of all ages.
They do have some decent content on here,
but mostly it's pretty forgettable.
Even my kids don't really gravitate toward this stuff.
They're going to sooner log into Netflix or Disney.
So, let's go ahead and get rid of Kabillion.
And then there are other channels that I've found
that I thought that I would enjoy,
but didn't end up really using.
So for instance, we've got Nosey free TV.
This is a lot of the daytime talk shows.
So you get Maury, Jerry Springer, that sort of thing.
A lot of that in here.
This is a great example of an app that I think is cool.
And I'm sure for a lot of audiences out there,
this is a great idea, but for me on my Roku,
I've never really used it much.
And I don't see myself using it much in the future.
So, Nosey is outta here.
And finally, I know this one
is gonna be a little bit controversial,
but I'm gonna go ahead
and finally pull the plug on Locast.
Locast, if you don't know about it,
is an app that gets you local feeds,
especially local news feeds,
but piped in through the internet so you can stream them.
It's a very cool app.
I have seen it used,
but I've been waiting patiently for years for Locast
to show up in my market and it never has.
And this is probably the case for you as well.
It's just not available in very many markets.
So goodbye, Locast.
Again, I know it's controversial,
but if I can't use it, I don't need it.
The goods news is,
I can use something like Haystack News
to kind of approximate that experience anyway.
So, there you go.
Those are the apps that are going right away.
But as I scroll through this as you can see,
there are a bunch (chuckles) of other apps on there
that as you could guess, I'm probably not using.
So, like I said on Friday,
make sure you're here for the live stream
where we're gonna bicker and argue and have a lot of fun
about which apps I should also get rid of
from the list of what's left.
So subscribe, like,
and yeah, be there on Friday for that live stream.
I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Hope to see you there.