Disney Plus App
Description
Disney Streaming, a division of The Walt Disney Company, released Disney+ in November 2019 as a subscription video-on-demand service. The app provides subscribers with access to movies and TV shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm (Star Wars), National Geographic, and 20th Century Studios. Disney+ is the third-largest subscription streaming service in the world with 131.6 million paid subscribers as of early 2026, behind Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
Users install the app on smartphones, tablets, computers, smart TVs, game consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox, streaming devices such as Roku and Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. A web browser version does not require any installation.
CONTENT LIBRARY
The app arranges content into branded hubs to allow subscribers to browse by franchise. The Disney hub includes animated classics, live-action remakes, and family movies dating back to the studio’s earliest decades. The Pixar hub contains the complete library of Pixar feature films and shorts. The Marvel hub contains the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in release order, as well as Disney+ Original series that link directly to the films. The Star Wars hub contains all of the Skywalker Saga films, as well as series such as The Mandalorian, Andor, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The National Geographic hub carries documentaries, nature series and science programming.
In the United States, the app introduced an ESPN hub in December 2024. This hub provides live sports broadcasts, studio shows and sports news to Disney+ subscribers that previously required a separate subscription to the streaming service, ESPN+. Subscribers that add the ESPN Unlimited tier gain access to all the cable channels offered by the ESP Network including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, etc. Additionally, every live game and event that ESPN carries.
Disney+ started incorporating Hulu content into the app in 2024, and in August 2025, the company announced a full merger of both services into one app scheduled for 2026. At the same time, Disney replaced Star content hub (used in international markets for general entertainment content) with Hulu brand globally starting October 2025.
VIDEO AND AUDIO QUALITY
The app is streaming more than 100 titles in 4K Ultra HD resolution. Premium-tier subscribers receive Dolby Atmos spatial audio on compatible devices and home theater setups, which creates a three-dimensional sound field that places audio above, below and around the listener. HDR (High Dynamic Range) support increases the color and brightness range on compatible displays. Standard plans limit video quality to 1080p Full HD. The ad-supported Standard With Ads plan also provides 1080p.
The app automatically adjusts the quality of video based on the available internet connection speed, lowering resolution during periods of slower internet connection speed, and recovering quality when bandwidth increases.
OFFline Viewing Downloads
Subscribers on Standard and Premium plans can download movies and TV episodes to mobile devices and tablets to watch offline. Downloaded titles remain available within the Disney+ app as long as the account subscription is in place. The number of downloads permitted and the duration for which they are playable differ by title and region because of licensing restrictions.
USER PROFILES
A single Disney+ account includes up to 7 separate user profiles. Each profile has its own watchlist, viewing history, and personalized recommendation feed independently from other profiles on the same account. Subscribers name and avatar each profile when setting it up, and the app remembers individual playback preferences and language settings on a per-profile basis.
PARENTAL CONTROLS
The app features parental control features that are controlled by the parents directly from the mobile application without a computer. Parents assign a content rating level to each child’s profile, limiting what that profile can browse and play. Setting a profile to Junior Mode restricts it completely to all-ages appropriate content and includes a Kid-Proof Exit feature which prevents young children from switching to a different profile without a PIN.
Account holders set a 4-digit PIN on any profile to prevent others from accessing it. A separate account password is used to protect the parental control settings themselves from being altered by children. Parents can also disable the ability to create new profiles, which makes it impossible for a child to circumvent rating restrictions by simply creating an unrestricted profile.
The app identifies older content with depictions that are now considered culturally outdated and shows a warning screen before those titles play.
GROUPWATCH
GroupWatch allows subscribers to watch the same title together in sync in different locations and devices. All participants will need their own active Disney+ subscription. Up to six accounts participate in a GroupWatch session and each participant controls their own playback independently, although the app keeps everyone’s streams in sync. Participants send reactions — emoji responses — during playback that appear on each viewer’s screen.
CONCURRENT STREAMS
The Standard and Standard With Ads plans include the ability to stream on two different devices at the same time from the same account. The Premium plan increases that number to four simultaneous streams. Bundle subscribers have different stream limits for the Hulu and HBO Max portions of their subscription.
SUBSCRIPTION PLANs (United STATES, 2025-2026)
Disney+ has three individual tiers. Standard With Ads is a stream at 1080p with advertisements and 2 simultaneous streams. Standard removes much of the advertising and has the same resolution and stream limit. Premium upscale video to 4K UHD, adds Dolby Atmos audio, and increases concurrent streams to four. Disney+ also gets involved in bundle plans that include it in combination with Hulu and ESPN at a discount to subscribing to each service separately. The Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Select Bundle starts at $19.99 a month. The Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Unlimited Bundle, which includes all live channels of the ESPN cable network, starts at $35.99 per month with ads or $44.99 per month for the ad-free version. A further bundle option includes HBO Max in addition to Disney+ and Hulu at $19.99 a month. All plans can be cancelled at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period.
