Peacock reworks its phone app around vertical video and AI search

NBCUniversal says the new features are already in testing and will keep rolling out through early 2027. So this is a preview, not a single launch day.

The company groups the work into three parts:

• A new way to browse: a homepage built around franchises and fandoms, with a "Jump Back In" row at the top.
• Live video that adapts: vertical live tests and a player that changes with your screen.
• Conversational AI search: a chat box for when you know the mood but not the title.

These build on features that already exist: Your Bravoverse, the Clips Feed and Peacock Performance View.

Vertical video is video made for a phone held upright. It fills the screen from top to bottom, like clips on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

Most TV is wide, so a normal show shown on a phone leaves black bars. Peacock wants clips, live moments and even small dramas that fit the phone without those bars.

Peacock is testing a homepage that groups things by show, not by type of content. NBCUniversal calls these Franchise Hubs. Each hub opens direct paths to games, microdramas and live moments, and it pulls together related episodes, podcasts, clips and experiences.

The examples it names are Minions, The Traitors, Love Island USA and One Chicago.

How it works: a hub is meant to be one place for a fan of a show. You could watch an episode, see a clip, listen to a podcast and play a game without hopping between sections.

Peacock is also testing two homepage formats called Trending Stack and Direct Access. NBCUniversal says they give viewers different levels of control and interaction, and it has not described them further.

The Clips Feed is the other half of this plan. It is a single home for vertical clips and for franchise experiences like podcasts and Your Bravoverse. The idea is a natural path from a short clip to a full episode.

Sports and live shows are made for wide screens. Peacock is working on a Dynamic Video Player that switches between vertical and horizontal playback, depending on how you hold the device, and keeps the key action in frame.

Before that arrives, Peacock is running tests. Later this year and into early 2027, it will expand live vertical video tests to:

• The Voice live simulcasts
• NCAA basketball games
• Golf

For future NBA games, the player will also show player stats and deeper game information under the live feed in a two-part screen. Peacock announced live vertical NBA video in March, saying AI-driven real-time cropping would shape the picture for phone screens.

In real life You are on a train watching a game on your phone held upright. The player keeps the ball and the players in frame, and the stats sit under the video. Turn the phone sideways at home and you get a normal wide picture.

Normal search wants a title. This one wants a feeling. NBCUniversal is testing a chat inside Peacock where you can start with a title, a mood, a theme, a similar program or a situation. You then keep asking follow-up questions in the same chat.

As an actor, a genre or a franchise catches your eye, you can refine or redirect the request without starting over. NBCUniversal describes it as search for when fans "know the mood, not the title."

Why it matters: picking what to watch is the hard part of streaming. A search that takes a vague request and keeps narrowing it could save time, if it picks well.

NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Matt Strauss gave a clear reason in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "We're trying to give people reasons to open up our app every single day, and we know the value of one incremental hour per user per month," he said.

Jim Denney, chief product officer for global streaming, put the larger idea this way: the plan is for Peacock to be "more than a place to watch," an entertainment platform that gives fans more ways to discover and take part.

The big picture: this is a bet that people will spend more time in an app if it feels like their favorite fandom, and not like a shelf of titles.

This did not start this week. In March, Peacock showed a plan that pairs vertical video with AI. Your Bravoverse pulls short clips from more than 5,000 hours of Bravo footage and stitches them into personalized playlists. A digital avatar of host Andy Cohen guides viewers through them.

Peacock also said then that the average Bravo viewer watches about 24 hours of Bravo content per month. Peacock added that some of the most dedicated fans watch up to 75 episodes in a month.

At that time the service had 44 million subscribers. It had also reported a loss of $552 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. A push for more daily use makes sense next to numbers like those.

Peacock is not alone. Disney+ launched its own mobile short-form feed for US users in March, and Netflix said it plans to expand short-form video to promote new video podcasts.

A microdrama is a very short, serial story, often a minute or so per episode, made to be watched on a phone. Peacock released its first scripted one, Charmed by a Southern Monster, in November. NBCUniversal also announced Campus Confidential, a Bravo unscripted series that it calls Peacock's first original vertical microdrama.

Peacock's mobile app already includes games such as Law & Order and Jeopardy! TODAY, and a shopping experience called Shop What Happens.

A membership program is also coming. It is in beta now and rolls out wide in 2027. NBCUniversal says eligible subscribers will get rewards, benefits and activities tied to the movies and shows they enjoy.

• Expect a changed app slowly: testing runs into early 2027, so you may see features at different times from your friends.
• Search gets easier: you can describe a mood, a show you liked or a situation, then keep refining in the chat.
• Clips may lead to episodes: the Clips Feed is built to move you from a short video to the full show.
• Watch live on your phone: live vertical tests are growing to The Voice, NCAA basketball and golf.