I Built It in a Night. I Didn't Stop There.

Two weeks ago I wrote about building StreamNChill — a movie and TV watchlist app I put together in a single evening after my mom mentioned she wished one existed. By the time I went to bed, it was live. I was proud of it.

Then I kept using it. And every time I ran into something I wished it could do, I'd open Claude Code and just... ask. Most of the time, the feature was done by the end of the session.

Two weeks later, StreamNChill is a different app. Here's what it's become.

The Feature That Actually Solves Movie Night

The one I keep showing people is called Watch Together. You know the problem: you sit down with your spouse, a friend, whoever — and nobody can agree on what to watch. You don't want to be the one who picked the bad movie. Twenty minutes later you're still on the couch doing nothing.

Watch Together fixes it. Pick a friend who's on StreamNChill, and the app looks at both your watch histories — what you've rated, what you loved, what's sitting on your lists. Then it finds the bridge: something you'd both actually enjoy, with a real explanation for why.

"Based on what you've both loved, here's something that lands in the middle — and here's why it works for both of you."

It's the closest thing to having a mutual friend who knows both of your taste and isn't going to just say "I don't care, whatever you want."

Your Year in Film, in a Card

The other one that gets people is the Wrapped Card. Think Spotify Wrapped, but for movies and TV. Movies watched. Shows completed. Estimated hours. Your highest-rated title. Your most-rewatched pick. It renders into a shareable card you can screenshot and send.

I didn't fully anticipate this part: building something shareable accidentally makes it social in a way the leaderboard never quite did. The leaderboard is a number. The Wrapped Card is a story. People see it and immediately want to know what their own looks like.

Face ID Sign-In. Yes, Really.

This one I didn't plan. I was reading about WebAuthn — the technology behind Face ID and Touch ID on websites — and I said out loud to nobody: "I wonder if I could just add that."

I could. Sign in once with your Google account, set up the passkey, and from then on it's your face or fingerprint. No password. No "sign in with Google" button. Just open the app and you're in.

Everything Else That Landed

A few more things worth knowing about:

• Streaming service filters. Tell the app which services you actually have — Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Max, Prime, Apple TV+, Peacock, Paramount+, Tubi — and search results only show what you can watch tonight.
• Letterboxd import. If you've been tracking movies on Letterboxd, export your CSV and import it here in one shot. Ratings included.
• IMDB Top 100. Browse the list and see what you've watched. The gap view — how many you haven't seen — is a little humbling.
• Quick Tally. Swipe through trending titles and tag them fast. Good for a lazy Sunday when you want to bulk-add your backlog.
• Quick Log. When you mark something watched, it asks for a star rating and who you watched it with. Auto-dismisses if you ignore it.
• Achievements. I'm not above a little gamification. Century Club is harder than it sounds.
• Watch Goal. Set a number for the year. See if you hit it.
• Taste Profile. Go back through your watched list and tag titles as loved, neutral, or didn't land — it makes Tonight recommendations sharper.
• Tonight History. Every recommendation gets saved. You'll never get the same pick twice.

Still a PWA — add it to your home screen and it runs like a real app

The Honest Part

I want to be clear about what this is. StreamNChill is a personal side project. I'm not running ads, I'm not selling anything, and your data is yours. An account syncs your list across devices — that's the only reason it exists.

What it's become is something I genuinely didn't expect when I built the first version. The idea-to-feature timeline has collapsed in a way I'm still getting used to. Every time I think "that'd be cool," it's done in an evening. Most of the time faster.

If you haven't tried it yet, try it. If you have and there's something you'd want, tell me — I'm genuinely open to hearing it. This thing is still growing.

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