{"slug": "ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app", "title": "AI and the rise of the universal entertainment app", "summary": "AI is driving the convergence of entertainment apps into universal platforms, with Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok all expanding beyond their original formats to capture more user time and revenue. Netflix has added gaming, live sports, short video clips, and podcasts; Spotify now offers video podcasts, social features, fitness classes, audiobooks, narrated magazines, and physical book sales; YouTube has integrated short-form content, podcasts, gaming, music, movies, TV, sports, news, and shopping; and TikTok supports long-form content, travel planning, and shopping. The trend is fueled by market maturity, multi-format creators, and AI's ability to efficiently manage diverse content types, increasing user engagement and monetization.", "body_md": "All the big entertainment apps are starting to look the same, and that’s not an accident. For a decade, platforms fought over who would dominate a single format: music, video, podcasts, audiobooks. Now, powered by AI, they’re fighting over something bigger — becoming the app you default to whenever you have time to kill, no matter what form the content takes.\n\nThere are several reasons why this is the case. The market for entertainment apps is reaching maturity, so growth has slowed, pushing companies to compete on time spent and revenue-per-user instead of new sign-ups. In addition, today’s creators often work across formats, so it makes sense to provide a home for all their content, not just one piece of it.\n\nAI adds a third reason. It makes it easier for a single company to build and run several formats well, and the wider the content mix, the more time users spend in the app, which in turn drives both ad revenue and subscriptions.\n\nNetflix is one clear example of this trend, as the service over the past several years has added gaming, live sports and other events, and, more recently, [short video clips](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/07/netflix-dabbles-in-shorter-video-content-with-its-new-set-of-publisher-deals-with-variety-others/) and podcasts. The idea is to capture more of users’ time, even when there’s not a TV or movie they want to watch, as well as to find a way into the smaller bits of free time that people usually fill with scrolling social media, playing casual games, or watching TikTok or Reels.\n\nSpotify has also been expanding its footprint beyond its original premise as a home for streaming music. After adding podcasts, the company added support for video podcasts, [social features](https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/10/spotify-is-no-longer-just-a-streaming-app-its-a-social-network/) like\n\nQ&As and commenting, [stories](https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/08/spotify-introduces-countdown-pages-and-its-own-stories-feature/), and [messaging](https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/26/spotify-launches-a-messages-feature-in-a-bid-to-become-more-social/), as well as different types of content like [fitness classes](https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/27/spotifys-next-frontier-fitness-content/), [audiobooks](https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/05/spotify-expands-audibook-access-to-family-plan-members-in-the-u-s-for-the-first-time/), narrated [magazines](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/26/spotify-now-lets-you-stream-narrated-magazine-articles-too/), and even [physical book sales](https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/spotify-launches-the-ability-to-purchase-physical-books-in-the-us-and-uk/).\n\nMeanwhile, YouTube, originally the home to longer-form creator content, moved into short-form content to compete with TikTok, while also adding dedicated [space](https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/22/youtube-launches-a-dedicated-podcasts-homepage-for-u-s-users/) for [podcasts](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/youtube-adds-new-podcast-features-including-an-ai-recommendation-tool-and-auto-speed/), gaming content, music, movies and TV, sports and news, shopping, and more. Now, you can [watch free movies and TV](https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/23/youtube-to-stream-free-ad-supported-tv-shows-for-the-first-time/), supported by ads, stream live content, or rent or buy TV and movies to add to your library. At this rate, folding YouTube TV and YouTube Music into YouTube proper — and selling tiered access to the whole bundle — looks like a matter of when, not if.\n\nEven TikTok, largely known for short videos, offers support for [long-form content](https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/28/tiktok-expands-max-video-length-to-10-minutes-up-from-3-minutes/) and [other features,](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/26/tiktoks-road-to-becoming-a-super-app/) like [travel planning](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/12/tiktok-now-wants-to-be-the-place-you-book-the-trip-you-just-saw-on-tiktok/), [shopping](https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/12/tiktok-shop-officially-launches-in-the-u-s/), [local exploration](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/tiktok-launches-an-opt-in-local-feed-in-the-u-s-leveraging-users-precise-location/), [buying tickets](https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/16/tiktok-partners-with-axs-to-sell-tickets-for-live-events-worldwide/) to live events, and more. It even has its own standalone app for [microdramas](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/tiktok-quietly-launches-a-micro-drama-app-called-pinedrama/) and another [called TikTok Pro Events](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/03/tiktok-launches-tiktok-pro-events-an-app-for-cultural-moments-like-the-fifa-world-cup/) for sporting events — like the FIFA World Cup — plus music festivals, and more.\n\nWhile there are still some differentiators between the services today, there’s an obvious trend toward convergence over a similar set of features focused on providing users with access to content to watch, listen, play, or shop.\n\nThis is also where AI comes into play. With format no longer a differentiator, the value these apps offer comes down to how well they connect users with what they want next.\n\n## AI’s role in building the entertainment operating system of the future\n\nAI makes content recommendation across formats easier, sharpening personalization while also giving users more direct control over how those recommendations get made.\n\nSpotify, for instance, is testing a tool that will let you [edit your Taste Profile](https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/13/spotify-will-let-you-edit-your-taste-profile-to-control-your-recommendations/), its AI-built model of your preferences. It’s also building AI features that let users [chat with AI directly ](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/spotify-expands-its-ai-push-with-a-chatgpt-like-music-assistant/)about what they want or [build playlists](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/22/spotify-brings-ai-powered-prompted-playlists-to-the-u-s-and-canada/) of things they like — and [not just music.](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/22/spotify-brings-ai-powered-prompted-playlists-to-the-u-s-and-canada/)\n\nNetflix has made a similar case. Co-CEO Greg Peters [told](https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/17/netflix-plans-to-add-a-vertical-video-feed-use-ai-for-recommendations/) investors in the company’s first-quarter call that new model architectures are improving personalization and letting the team iterate faster.\n\nAI-assisted coding is also speeding up how fast these companies can build and launch new content areas in the first place.\n\nPlus, generative AI can be used for content creation, though the subject remains controversial as artists worry that AI tools will use their work for training purposes or even put them out of work. Netflix, for better or for worse, has [leaned into AI,](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/21/netflix-goes-all-in-on-generative-ai-as-entertainment-industry-remains-divided/) having [recently bought](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/19/netflix-paid-587m-for-ben-afflecks-ai-filmmaking-startup/) Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking company for [$587 million](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/19/netflix-paid-587m-for-ben-afflecks-ai-filmmaking-startup/), for instance.\n\nYouTube has used generative AI to [launch more creator tools](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/16/youtube-announces-new-generative-ai-tools-for-shorts-creators/), but also to improve its [search engine](https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/28/youtube-is-testing-an-ai-powered-search-feature-that-shows-guided-answers/), add [conversational AI features](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/ask-youtube-brings-ai-powered-conversational-search-to-video-adds-gemini-omni-to-shorts/), [build playlists](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/youtube-rolls-out-an-ai-playlist-generator-for-premium-users/), and expand its content’s reach [with auto-dubbing](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/11/youtube-ai-updates-to-include-expansion-of-auto-dubbing-age-identifying-tech-and-more/), among other things. Earlier this year, the company [said](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/googles-subscriptions-rise-in-q4-as-youtube-pulls-60b-in-yearly-revenue/) that more than a million channels used its AI creation tools and 20 million consumers used its Gemini AI-powered content discovery tool in the month of December.\n\nAlphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has framed AI as central to the YouTube experience for creators and viewers alike.\n\nTikTok has assembled its own version, with an [in-app AI chatbot](https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/25/tiktok-is-testing-an-in-app-ai-chatbot-called-tako/), AI [video-creation tools](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/13/tiktok-launches-tiktok-ai-alive-a-new-image-to-video-tool/), AI-driven [search](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/03/tiktok-rolls-out-ai-powered-smart-keyword-filters-to-limit-content-you-dont-want-to-see/) and recommendations, and AI-powered [accessibility features](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/14/tiktok-rolls-out-new-accessibility-tools-including-ai-generated-alt-text/).\n\nAll four are, of course, also applying AI to their ad stacks, helping marketers write ads, target audiences, price placements, and measure results.\n\nFor consumers, this convergence means fewer reasons to switch apps at all. Whichever one you land on gains an advantage — more data on your habits, more lock-in — making it harder to leave even if prices climb or quality drops.\n\nAs the lines between music, video, podcasts, books, and games blur, the coming battle is no longer which format will win, but which app will become the place to go for entertainment, regardless of what form that comes in.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app/", "published_at": "2026-07-21 19:39:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-21 19:43:43.107385+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Netflix", "Spotify", "YouTube", "TikTok"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-rise-of-the-universal-entertainment-app.jsonld"}}