There are lots of television shows and movies available to stream online. With so much content, it is difficult to track it all. Trakt is a platform that keeps track of the shows and movies you watch. It includes almost every film and streaming show along with their schedule and source in a single place.
Like Netflix, it keeps a log of everything you watch (including likes and dislikes) and makes recommendations. You can save a show to a watchlist, create a personal list, build your watched history, and much more.
In this article, we’ll show you how to keep track of everything you watch using Trakt.
Using the Trakt Website
To get started, navigate to the Trakt website and click the Join Trakt For Free button. Once you sign in, select your favorite genres, and add a few movies and TV shows you’ve watched. Click the Continue to Dashboard button to finish the setup process.
The dashboard gives you the total summary of your Trakt account. It includes what to watch next, an upcoming schedule of shows, episodes you have watched recently, and a summary of your activity over the last 30 days. This section is interactive. It highlights the monthly viewing statistics and visualizations of your viewing habits with color-coded graphs and pointers.
Do More With Lists
Your watchlist is the built-in list to keep track of everything you want to watch. Click the TV or Movies link at the top of the page. To add a TV show or movie, click the Blue list icon just below the show’s banner image. If you don’t have any other lists, then the show will get added to your watchlist instantly.
You’ll see these blue lists on every summary page of a particular show. Click the Add to List button and check the Watchlist box. The built-in calendar and progress level stays up-to-date with what you’re watching.
Create Your Personal List
When you make a new account on the Trakt website, it consists of a single Watchlist. But you can create a custom personal list to track your favorite actors or directors, movies in a particular genre, and much more.
Click the Add to new list (+) button to add your first personal list. Type in the Name and Description, and choose a display rank to add a small number above each poster. Then, select the default sorting of the list. You can sort them by recently added, release date, popularity, and more. Finally, click the Save List button.
Manage Your Watchlist
Trakt helps you manage all your lists to track what you want to watch and your favorites. Click your Profile name at the top of the page and choose Lists. When viewing your lists page, you can sort them by using the dropdown menu in the top right. Click the Reorder button by dragging the items around or click a number and type in a specific position. You can also add, edit, or delete lists from this page.
Get Information on Shows and Movies
Trakt makes it easy to find where to watch TV shows and movies on multiple streaming services. Just beneath the show’s image, click the Watch Now button to open a popup window. For streaming services, Trakt will let you know if it’s free, requires a subscription, or an account from a particular cable TV provider.
To see when new episodes will air, click the Calendar link at the top of the page. You can personalize the calendar to change the look and even optimize the layout. Click the Profile name at the top of the page and choose Settings. There are dozens of combinations to make the calendars useful for your workflow. You can change the views from a week to a month, starting date, image artwork, and more.
Build and Manage Your Watched History
Trakt helps you to keep a complete history of every TV show and movies you’ve watched. If you’re watching something right now, you can check in via the website. Click the red Check In button from any movie or episode page, type in the message, and share it on social media.
Add a Show to Your Watched History
To add the episode of any season and movie to your watched history, click the Purple check mark icon just below the show’s banner image. If you’re on the summary page click the Add to History button. When you click the check mark icon, the item gets added to your watched history with the present date and time.
If you want to be more specific, choose the release date to use the original date and time when the episode aired. Or else choose right now to use the present date and time. If these options don’t work, choose other date and specify the exact date.
Manage Your Watched History
As you add items to your watched history, the buttons will dynamically update to give you stats and progress information on the summary page. You’ll see the play count and the recent date and time you watched the item.
Click your Profile name and choose History to see the in-depth results of shows and movies you’ve watched. If you want to remove plays from watched history, click the Purple check mark again and confirm the prompt that you want to remove all plays for that item.
Set Up Scrobbling for Automatic Tracking
Scrobbling simply means automatically tracking what you’re watching. Instead of checking in from your phone, the plugin runs in the background and automatically scribbles back to Trakt while you enjoy watching your favorite show. It works with services like Netflix, Plex, Kodi, Emby, Infuse, and more.
To get started, click the Apps link at the top of the page. Under Choose your media center text, click the link and follow the instructions. Most of these tools come from the third-party developers using the Trakt API. If your use is pretty basic, then you won’t run into any problems. Plugins for Kodi and Plex require more complex integration and troubleshooting.
Trakt Apps for Android and iOS
Trakt doesn’t have an official mobile app. However, it’s possible to use every feature discussed in this article in a mobile web browser. There are also lots of great third-party apps for Android and iOS that use Trakt. If you want a different experience with built-in Trakt integration, then try these apps.
1. CineTrak
With CineTrak, you can check reviews and ratings from multiple sources such as Trakt, IMDb, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes in a single place. It also has a section of Curated Lists and Staff Picks to show you the best movies from many categories such as best picture, most Oscar wins, top grossing films, and regularly updated categories.
You can also discover TV shows and movies in your region with built-in filters such as trending, popularity, most played, and more. Just like the watched history, its History section shows you the movies and shows you’ve watched.
Download: CineTrak for Android (Free, premium version available)
2. SeriesGuide
This app lets you track watched episodes, keep tabs on new releases, and manage your media collection. You can connect with Trakt to check-in, comment, and sync between other devices and media centers. The app works offline too and has built-in integration with the DashClock widget. The premium version unlocks the SeriesGuide Cloud to backup and sync your shows, lists, and movies.
Download: SeriesGuide for Android (Free) | SeriesGuide X Pass ($2)
3. Watcht
Watcht a simple and intuitive app for iPhone and iPad. The app mimics the features of Trakt and sticks to the basics. The dashboard gives you the summary of your Trakt account and recommendations. The watchlist consists of all TV shows and movies you want to watch. The summary page has all the details of the show, episodes, actors, and comments.
Download: Watcht for iOS (Free)
4. TV Show Tracker
If you want a cross-platform Trakt app for both Android and iOS, then this should be your first choice. Although the interface is plain, the app is usable, and offers you many customization options. You can change the theme, fonts, background color, image artwork, and more. It gives you notification for upcoming shows in local time, and even lets you hide spoilers.
Download: TV Show Tracker for iOS | Android (Free, premium version available)
Let Trakt Help You Track Movies and TV Shows
Trakt is a fantastic web app to track TV shows and movies. You can use Trakt for free and get lots done with it. If you choose to subscribe to Trakt, it unlocks the whole range of features. You get to enable a complete dark mode, get custom iCal and RSS feeds of shows, advanced filtering option, integration with IFTTT, and a lot more besides.
There are various methods to save streaming shows for later. Which means you never need forget all those new releases you haven’t yet had time to watch. If this interests you, here are some other ways to save streaming shows to watch later.
Read the full article: How to Track the Movies and TV Shows You Watch Using Trakt