Best Streaming & TV Apps for iPhone (2026)

Still the one we open without thinking. On iPhone the download button is the real hero, letting you stash a few episodes for the subway or a flight, and playback resumes across devices without a hiccup. The cheapest ad tier is fine on a phone screen, though we paid up to drop the ads. One detail we love: long pressing a title surfaces a quick preview.

The app the whole household ends up using. Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and a deep National Geographic shelf make it our pick for families, and the GroupWatch feature is genuinely fun for watching with friends remotely. It is a paid subscription with bundle options that include Hulu. If you share it with kids, take five minutes to set up parental controls, which lock profiles behind a PIN.

If you watch a lot of YouTube on your iPhone, Premium changes the experience completely. No ads, true background play so audio keeps going when you lock the screen, and offline downloads for long trips. It is a monthly cost and includes YouTube Music, which quietly became our second music app. The background play alone made it impossible to go back to the free version.

The home base for sports fans. Live games, scores, highlights and the bottom line ticker all live in one tidy app, and the alerts are smart enough to ping you only for teams you follow. Some content needs a cable login or the paid ESPN plan, but plenty of scores and clips are free. We spent an afternoon personalizing the feed so it opens straight to our teams.

An underrated all rounder that punches above its price. You get CBS shows, a big movie library, plus live NFL on CBS and Champions League soccer, which is the combination that won us over. The cheaper Essential tier carries ads. On iPhone, picture in picture kept a match playing in the corner while we texted, and our tips for getting the most from it go deeper.

Our go to for live sports on Fox networks, from NFL Sundays to weekend soccer and big fight nights. The app streams smoothly over cellular, and the scores and standings sections are quick to check between plays. A TV provider login unlocks the live streams, though scores and news are free. We leaned on it for game alerts, and our notes on the Fox Sports experience cover the setup.

For basketball diehards this is the one to have. Live games come through a League Pass subscription, but the free side gives you scores, news, classic games and surprisingly good highlight reels minutes after the buzzer. On an iPhone the multi game view is tight on space, yet it works in a pinch. We dug into the lesser known features that make following several games at once far easier.

The free CBS app is a quietly useful pickup if you watch network shows or local news. You can stream recent episodes the morning after they air, catch CBS News live, and follow along during awards season. A provider or Paramount+ login removes limits and adds live local stations. We used it to catch up on a primetime drama we kept missing, and it handled airplay cleanly.

Now folded into the Paramount+ with Showtime world, this is where the prestige dramas and documentaries live. The catalog is smaller than the giants, but the hit rate is high, which is exactly what we want for a focused night in. It is a paid add on or standalone subscription. Downloads worked reliably for offline viewing on a flight, and we walk through its best features in a separate piece.

If you are already a Spectrum internet or cable customer, this app turns your iPhone into a portable cable box at no extra cost. Live channels, a full guide and your on demand library travel with you, and in home streaming unlocks even more networks. It needs a Spectrum account, so it is strictly for existing subscribers. We found it handy for catching live news away from the TV.

Wrestling fans get a dedicated home for premium live events, pay per views and a huge vault of classic matches and documentaries. The app is clean and the search makes it easy to fall down a nostalgia rabbit hole. Much of the live content now lives on other services in some regions, but the on demand vault remains the draw. On iPhone the picture quality held up well.

The pick for Spanish language entertainment, telenovelas, news and live sports including major soccer tournaments. The interface is friendly and a lot of content streams free, with a provider login unlocking the full live lineup. We kept it on the Home Screen during the last big soccer summer and barely closed it. If you compare your options, our look at Telemundo versus other Spanish language apps helps you choose.

This one is less about watching on the phone and more about controlling what you watch everywhere else. If you own a Roku player or TV, the free app is a better remote than the plastic one, with voice search and quick app launching. The private listening feature, piping TV audio to your iPhone earbuds, is the trick we show off most, and our favorite Roku app features has more.

A niche pick that baseball fans will appreciate. It is less a streaming app and more your digital ticket, mobile checkout and stadium guide, with live game info and ballpark offers baked in. It shines on game day, surfacing your seat, nearby concessions and team news in one place. The app is free, though tickets cost money. We ended up checking it all season.