How to watch Disney+

Folks, the day is here. The much hyped Disney+ streaming service is out and you can watch it right now. 

When the servers work, anyway.

Once the incredible stress of launch day wears off, streaming Disney+ and its massive catalog is easy as can be. You can choose to pay either $6.99 a month or $12.99 a month to bundle it with Hulu and ESPN+. Once you have an account, just load it on your device of choice, and check out 1976’s The Shaggy D.A. like you’ve been dreaming about for months.

Having said all that, you probably do have some questions about how it all works. That’s why we’re here.

Where can I watch Disney+?

You don’t have to worry too much about availability. It’s on pretty much on everything that can download streaming apps. Disney even made a helpful graphic on the service’s website.

In plain text, Disney+ is available on:

If you have any of those devices (and I don’t know how you could read this if you don’t), congratulations! You can watch Disney+. The only real omission here is under “Game Consoles,” as the Nintendo Switch isn’t currently supported. Aside from Hulu, you can’t really stream much of anything on Switch, anyway.

Just go to those devices’ respective app stores and download Disney+ from there. Log in and you should be good to go.

All I’ve got is this laptop. What do I do?

If you don’t have a smart TV, streaming box, or game console, you’re still in luck. Disney+ is still available to stream through a browser. All you gotta do is go to the Disney+ website, log in, and click on whatever it is you want to watch.

This might not be as good as sitting in front of a big TV to watch Star Wars in 4K, but sometimes that’s not possible.

Can I share my password with friends?

Yes, but not too many of them. According to the Disney+ customer support page, as many as four different devices can stream Disney+ at the same time. Other services like Hulu and HBO Go only allow between one and three concurrent streams, so this is actually one of the better aspects of Disney+.

It’ll be interesting to see if Disney ever tightens that restriction in the future.

I can’t sleep on airplanes. Can I download things on Disney+?

Like Netflix, Disney+ allows content to be downloaded and stored locally, but only as long as you’re still subscribed and connect to Disney+ at least once every 30 days. Downloads can be stored on as many as 10 different devices.

Android and iOS users can download films and shows straight from their respective pages in the mobile Disney+ app. There’s a dedicated downloads menu along the bottom row of the app for easy tracking, too. 

One thing to note is that, in the settings portion of the Disney+ mobile app, you can adjust the quality of downloads. Higher video quality means slower downloads and more storage space used, and vice versa for lower quality. 

And there you have it. That’s pretty much all you need to know about the physical act of watching things on Disney+. Once the service fixes its issues, feel free to use this information to watch popcorn classics like Brink and Smart House to your heart’s desire.