As someone who often writes about cord cutting and reviews a fair number of streaming video devices in the process, I’m acutely aware of how annoying it gets to log in to all your streaming services again on a new Roku, Fire TV, or Apple TV. As such, I’m particularly excited for Roku’s latest operating system update, which adds a new feature called “Automatic Account Link.”
According to Roku, the feature spares you from having to re-enter your streaming service credentials on a new device if you’ve logged in before on another Roku player or smart TV. Nearly 10 services support account linking right now, including Pandora and Sling TV, and Roku says more services should get on board soon. Like Apple and Amazon, Roku also supports single sign-on for TV network apps, so you don’t have to keep entering your credentials for each one.
Automatic Account Link is part of Roku OS 9.1, which also has some big improvements to search. You can now launch videos from The Roku Channel directly by voice–including free videos and premium subscription video–and Roku’s menu for genre searches is much slicker now. Some Roku players will get the OS 9.1 update today, and most others will get it in the coming weeks. Roku TVs should get the update early this summer.
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