IPTV Pro

Free or paid:

• Paid with one-time purchase

Accessibility Notes:

Accessible with no unlabeled buttons

Though no TalkBack actions have been implemented for this app, IPTV Pro for Android is quite accessible to the point that even finding unlabeled buttons in its interface is a challenge.

As one opens IPTV Pro for the first time, it asks for a playlist. The playlist can be imported into the app in several ways. One can provide a playlist URL, browse the phone's folder directory, or share the playlist from another app. I shared my playlist from Telegram, and IPTV Pro immediately imported all of the channels, movies and series. The app can also accept multiple playlists. Both the current playlist and the ones which are supposed to be added can be handled by selecting the Open button, at the top left corner of the app's main screen, selecting the Settings window, and choosing the Playlists options there.

Once the playlist and the channels are in, the main screen of the app displays the following controls at the top, from left to right, respectively: Open, the name of the current playlist, Search, View, and More options. Immediately below these buttons and controls, the following items appear: Favorites, All channels, and Categories.

By default, IPTV Pro displays all channels belonging to a playlist on the screen, and they occupy a large portion of the app's main screen. One can either explore by touch or swipe left and right to locate the proper channel. The Search button, one of the top buttons, can also be utilized to locate channels more quickly. However, if we select the Categories option instead of the default All channels option, the channels will be properly and neatly organized into many folders, based on the playlist's branches and divisional scheme. After announcing a folder name, like UK Sports, the number of channels inside that folder will also be announced.

At any event, regardless of the way the channels are displayed, double-tapping a channel immediately initiates playback, by default in the app's internal video player. The video player can be set to an external player from the Settings window if desired. If you go to the app's Settings window and select Video player preferences, you can alter the screen orientation for the player which is, by default, not the same as the screen orientation of the app. If you set it to System default, IPTV Pro won't alter the player orientation as playback starts. It's also worth mentioning that the app's built-in video player has no controls, so you should simply issue the Back gesture both to stop playback and to close the player. TalkBack's multi-finger gesture can be used to play/pause audio, and the app supports playback in the background, too.

In passing, the app's Settings window offers a whole host of customization options. For instance, you can select what to see on the app's start page - all channels by default, show or hide channel numbers, alter the refresh frequency for the playlist as the app starts, auto-play the last channel as the app loads, customize parental control settings, etc.

Finally, if you want to alter the way channels are sorted, select the More options button on the top right corner of the screen, and select Sort. There you can sort the channels by number which is the default option, by name, or by stream URL.

Last Tested App version and Android version:

7.1.6, Android 14