Filmin
Filmin on every television
One codebase, every device.
Filmin is Spain's streaming service for independent film. I look after the app on its televisions — one codebase across every device it ships on, some of that hardware a decade old.
The problem
Televisions are kept for a decade
A television isn't a phone that got bigger. People buy one and keep it for years, so the app has to feel the same on a set from 2015 as on one bought last week — on older browser engines and a fraction of the memory a laptop has.
The codebase carried its own history too: Angular, coupled to an older project, with a special case for every television that disagreed with the others.
The approach
Fewer special cases, then speed
Moving to React was the visible part. The more valuable one was removing the special cases: every branch kept alive for a single manufacturer is a bug that only ever reproduces in somebody else's living room.
The launch
A platform with no precedent
Amazon's Vega OS arrived with no precedent to lean on. I read the SDK, established what the platform would and wouldn't support, adapted the app and took it through to store submission — the whole path.
The team
Knowing what the devices will take
Owning the platform means I'm in the room early, which is where I'm most useful: saying clearly that a good idea won't run, before it becomes a design somebody has to undo.
After release I watch it closely, fix what's ours, and give the support team a straight answer for everything that isn't.
Highlights
- Angular to React, in production2024 — 2025Moving a long-lived app onto React while it kept shipping every few weeks. A story about sequencing more than speed.
- Amazon Vega OS launch2025A platform with no institutional knowledge behind it. I read the SDK, established what it would support and took us through to the store.