Standalone Hulu app will disappear from devices in 2026

Disney is planning to stop offering a standalone Hulu app — though the brand will continue to live on.

The decision comes after Disney finished a lengthy process of taking full ownership of Hulu, which involved buying NBCUniversal out of its remaining stake in the streamer.

Although a separate Hulu app will no longer be maintained, Disney will still sell separate subscriptions to Hulu and Disney+ while also continuing to offer bundles. 

That means that Hulu, which was one of the earliest brands in streaming, won’t be going away. Disney also plans to introduce the Hulu name in various overseas markets, including eventually replacing the “Star Plus” brand. 

In short, while Hulu will no longer be an app in the U.S., it will continue to be a significant entertainment brand in many parts of the world.

Disney did not mention any significant changes to the content Hulu would include, though it’s likely that the typical rotations of at least some content moving on and off it will still take place. It was also not clear how Disney+’s UI might handle the change, such as mixing in Hulu where possible — or if it might continue the approach of “hubs” to help organize choices. 

Disney did tease that “exciting new features” and improvements to Disney+ will be coming, including a more personalized homepage, though additional details were not provided. 

It says this significant update, along with removing Hulu apps from various marketplaces, will come in 2026.

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In 2024, Disney began the process of merging the technology used to power Disney+ and Hulu, which also led to the two services being tightly integrated with each other, including the ability to jump between content from both platforms.

Disney also used that opportunity to update metadata standards, which it said at the time would help fuel its recommendation and search engines. The process also required creating an expanded set of creative assets for when Hulu titles appear inside D+.

In March 2024, the company updated the Disney+ logo to use a green-blue shade that combined Disney’s previous blue palette with the familiar bright green of Hulu, creating a strong visual cue that the two offerings were becoming more tightly integrated.

It’s not clear if Disney will continue to use the distinctive shade it adopted in 2024 after the relaunch, though it certainly has the advantage of being fairly unique among other streamers and having built up some brand equity.

Disney had also adopted the broad strategy of building Disney+ as a more family-friendly option, with Hulu serving as the base for a broader array of entertainment, including where ABC network shows would land. The new approach would be able to continue that general concept, including the ability for customers to only subscribe to a preferred content library in exchange for a lower per-month price.

While having a common core technology stack helped streamline operations, Disney is largely framing the decision to pull the standalone Hulu app as a way to further improve its ability to efficiently introduce new features and perform other updates to apps. 

Disney is also reportedly keen to consolidate the two apps in order to help cut down on churn and improve its advertising ecosystem. 

As part of the announcement, Disney also said it will no longer report select quarterly metrics and financials for its streaming businesses, saying these paid subscriber counts and revenue per user are “less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses,” without providing any explanation or suggesting what other figures might be a more appropriate gauge. 

That move follows a switch Netflix made earlier. Shying away from focusing on subscriber counts and revenue per user, is a significant shift because those two figures have long been considered KPIs.