Remember April 2020, when the Quibi streaming service launched? What's that, you don't? Simply because this strange year has completely warped your sense of how the passage of time works? Well, that's understandable.
The mobile-focused streaming service landed worldwide on April 6 with a three-month free trial for iOS and Android, which was generous, but it also means some people are forgetting to cancel before being charged all these months later.
We remembered to end our Quibi subscription in the app beforehand, which saved us from paying the $9.99/£7.99 monthly subscription fee (US subscribers have an ad-supported option for $4.99 per month). The app is still on our phones, though, occasionally sending us notifications. It's a haunting reminder of those several minutes we spent watching Most Dangerous Game, where Christoph Waltz pitches Liam Hemsworth the idea of hunting him down for sport.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how you can cancel Quibi.
How to cancel Quibi
Canceling Quibi is pretty simple. In the app, click on your profile in the top right-hand corner. This opens the app's settings (see above). From here, click on 'My Account', under which you'll see your email, then 'Change Subscription Plan'.
At the bottom of this page (see below), you'll see an option in tiny text that says 'To cancel your plan or change your payment options, visit Manage Subscriptions.' Click on this button, and your device will open up the App Store or Google Play Store to manage your subscriptions.
Tap Quibi in your list of subscriptions, and you'll find an option to cancel. After confirming you want to cancel, you're done.
Why Quibi hasn't captured our imaginations
Quibi got a little unlucky with its launch timing. Arriving while much of the world was in lockdown over the spread of Covid-19, Quibi is designed to be watched on mobile devices on the go, with an innovative 'turnstyle' feature that lets you watch all content in vertical or horizontal view at full-screen. The name Quibi stands for 'quick bites', the focus being placed on premium short-form shows and movies.
Quibi never quite grabbed us, though, partly because we're spending more time in front of our TVs than with our phones right now (Quibi has added Chromecast and AirPlay support since launch, though).
Despite a pretty decent mix of factual and fictional content, some of its programming seemed cynically geared to grab attention, with touted involvement from celebrities we don't care about. In addition, some shows looked so novel that they were trying a bit too hard to be memed, like Dishmantled, a series where contestants are blasted with food before they have to recreate those dishes themselves. Or Barkitecture, a show about making fancy houses for dogs (surely they started with the name first on that one).
Quibi co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't sound delighted about the service's performance at launch. "Is it the avalanche of people that we wanted and were going for out of launch?" he told the New York Times back in May. "The answer is no. It's not up to what we wanted. It's not close to what we wanted."
Quibi now has a 14-day free trial if you want to see what the service is all about.
What else does Quibi have right now?
Quibi's volume of programming is pretty impressive, particularly at a time when other streaming services are struggling to get their big hitters back in production due to the current health crisis. It's recently released a Jason Reitman-directed at-home version of The Princess Bride, part of which involves Quibi donating 100,000 meals to those hit by Covid-19. You can watch the trailer for that above.
This week, it begins the animated series Your Daily Horoscope, which features the voice talents of BoJack Horseman's Will Arnett. One other highlight this week is Life Size Toys, which involves taking childhood favorites like the yo-yo or Thomas the Tank Engine, making gigantic versions of them and using each one as the basis for extreme stunts. We wouldn't watch it, but it makes for an entertaining trailer nonetheless.
