WarnerMedia, the company that owns HBO is planning on launching a streaming service this week called the HBO Max and with that, the WarnerMedia can then join up with other big streaming platforms such as Netflix as the industry becomes more fierce. But then there is have been other HBO services which are HBO Now and HBO Go so what is the different between the three services and how do you tell them apart?

The naming technique of the company might sound pretty funny and the compulsory inclusion of the “HBO” name being glued up to every services launched by the company might not really be a problem but the constant addition of a new “suffix” might just be confusing sometimes.

But I bet HBO isn’t attempting to confuse you, they just want to sell their services to us all after all right? Well, it might just need for you to do a little bit of understanding the differences between the HBO”_X” service. So let’s start from the beginning.

There is HBO Go which is the company’s original app and the platform through which you can easily stream all of your favorite HBO shows such as Game of Thrones. While it’s not actually HBO Go doing the work, anyone who wants to use the service needs tot have HBO included in their cable or television package and so in a nutshell, if you get HBO through your cable provider, Go is the app you have been using to watch shows.

Then there was the HBO Now which is more of a standalone service and allows you to watch HBO content but not necessarily with cable package as you can purchase an HBO Bow subscription easily. So the HBO Now is a service while Go is the application so take note on that while we proceed in this mini-tutorial.

And then the company announced the HBO Max and you might wonder what the heck Max is again. What you get with the max is actually the maximum WarnerMedia content catalog all dumped right to you. With that said, you now have access to watch shows such as Friends, Big Bang Theory, Rick & Morty, Doctor Who, Sesame Street and even Looney Tunes as well as several DC Movies including the Zack Snyder cut, Matrix series, Studio Ghibli’s library and even the Lord of the Rings so it’s like a combo of Go and Now with other interesting stuffs rolled together like a hamburger.

So let’s say you already have the HBO Now or HBO Go, then the good news is that you will likely not going to pay any extra charges for the HBO Max. And even the the HBO FAQ confirms it that anyone who has HBO Now through the biggest billing providers (including HBO itself) will have access to Max at no extra cost. Ditto for anyone who has HBO through their cable provider (and thus uses HBO Go), as most of the major providers appear to be on HBO‘s list of partners who will provide Max to customers gratis.

The company also made it easy for switching form one service to the other if you’re on Google Play or Apple TV that way, it will be easier for you to stay tuned to your favorite HBO show whenever. So hope you got the little understanding more now as we have tried to simplify it to the best of our knowledge.