Stremio is arguably one of the best apps that you can use to watch free movies and TV shows on any of your devices. It’s a modern, fast, and secure app that you can use at any given moment for a seamless and smooth entertainment experience – and it supports a great selection of extensions that you’ll want to use.
What is Stremio?
Stremio is a free and open-source cross-platform media center application that’s designed to provide a modern and secure interface from which people will have access to movies, TV shows, documentaries, and so much more.
It’s a great way to watch and organize all of your favorite content through a beautiful and well-designed app that can literally run on all of your devices (mostly). Think of it like Netflix, but with a lot more options. It also comes with a modern and minimal interface that anybody can easily use.
The whole application is divided into 6 sections: Home, Discover, Library, Calendar, Addons, and Settings. You can’t get lost even if you wanted to. From its ‘Settings’, you can also choose a language for the interface and one for your subtitles.
As of this moment, Stremio is available for all major operating systems, except for iOS devices (sorry, folks, Apple rules).
- Desktop App: Windows, macOS, and Linux (Flatpak, Debian/Ubuntu/, and Arch).
- Mobile App: Android
- Smart TVs: Basically any Android, Samsung, LG, Sony, or Philips TV.
- Other: Raspberry Pi
Of course, if you’re a developer, you can always download Stremio’s source code from GitHub and modify it however you like.
Stremio’s most powerful features
First things first, if you truly want to use Stremio to its fullest, creating an account is necessary. If you want all the movies and TV shows to automatically be saved and synced between your devices, an account is needed. You can create one using an email address or Facebook. Otherwise, just click on the “Guest login” to launch the interface.
One of the best features that most streaming platforms already offer is the ‘auto-saving’ feature, which makes sure to automatically save your progress from every movie or episode that you’re watching, so even if you close the app or your device shuts down or restarts, you’ll still be able to continue from where you left off.
If you’re mostly watching TV shows, then you’ll be happy to know that Stremio has its own integrated Calendar that shows when the next episode of your favorite show is airing.
I’m not afraid to admit that Calendar was by far the most stunning feature for me (apart from the addons, for which I’ll talk about in a minute). Being able to see when the next episode will air, while knowing how many episodes are airing on the same day, just helps me keep track of what (and when) to watch.
But the real power of Stremio (and the main reason why most people use it) is the support for third-party addons made by the community. You can quickly access all the addons by clicking on the “Addons” icon on the left side menu.
There are also many people providing their own third-party addons outside Stremio, meaning that you’ll have to find and install them manually (manually = 1-click installation process), but more on that in a bit.
Is Stremio legal to use?
In its nature, Stremio is legal, and thus why is available across any major platform and app store. Although legal, it can also be used for illegal purposes, as users have the ability to install third-party addons that give them access to pirated content from known popular torrent sites.
If you’re looking at using Stremio to have all of your content from multiple services organized into one place, then you can use it without any fears, but if you’re looking at pirated content, then you know the rest. But if that’s on your mind, then I suggest you choose a good VPN service to hide your online identity and stay anonymous with 1 click.
Best VPNs
There’s no doubt that a VPN is currently the easiest way to actually hide your identity and stay safe.
Addons such as “YouTube” will give you access to all of the platform’s content, ad-free, and with features such as notifying you whenever your favorite channels upload a new video.
The “Public Domain Movies” addon will give you access to more than 500 public domain movies, and there are many more that you can install and are completely safe (more below).
The best Stremio Addons to use to watch free movies and TV shows
Stremio already has a big collection of addons that you can easily install through the app. It has a section called “Addons” from which you can explore both Stremio’s official addons and the ones created by the community.
The community is where Stremio’s true power lives up to expectations, as those are the ones that give you access to the most popular services, streaming platforms, and websites to access and download/watch their content.
The community has created so pretty excellent addons, to say the least, including for accessing any kind of content. You can connect and listen to any of your favorite radio stations, watch live streams from various TV channels across many countries, learn more about your favorite movies and TV shows with IMDb’s catalogs and Rotten Tomatoes, automatically insert subtitles and even configure them, and so much more.
Watch movies and TV shows legally using these Stremio addons:
- WatchHub: Helps you discover where a movie or show is available on official streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc.). You click through to the provider’s site to watch (you must have an account for subscription services).
- Public Domain Movies: Streams public domain films (aka movies not under copyright) for free. Completely legal.
- YouTube: Lets you watch YouTube videos directly inside Stremio. Includes a huge range of official, free content.
- OpenSubtitles: Not a video source, but a subtitles addon that supports most languages.
For illegal and pirated content, the most popular Stremio addon is Torrentio (https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure), which gives you access to all of the content that exists on popular torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, 1337x, EZTV, YTS, TorrentGalaxy, MagnedDL, and many more.
Keep in mind, again, that this addon will give you access to illegal content, so if you’re going to install and use it, you are doing that with your own consent.
You can find the list of available third-party extensions for Stremio here: https://stremio-addons.netlify.app.
Overall, Stremio provides a seamless streaming experience
From free movies and TV shows that are legally provided by the official addons or the community ones to listening to your favorite radio stations and keeping track of your favorite episode releases, Stremio is an absolute media center application beast.
And while it can be used for illegal purposes, having a minimal and modern interface that lets you organize all of your content across many streaming platforms is simply a great solution.
Have you ever used Stremio in the past? And if so, what was your experience with the app, and which addons are your favorite ones? Let me know in the comments down below.
