Antonio Pinto, one of the original founders of TV Time, has launched Bingers, a new TV show and movie-tracking app designed to fill the gap left by TV Time's closure. The app is available now on iOS and Android, distributed through the App Store and Google Play. TechCrunch

TV Time was shut down by its owner, Whip Media, which decided to focus on AI efforts instead. At the time of its shutdown, TV Time had been installed more than 26.4 million times. The app's removal from app stores on July 15, 2026 followed weeks of user outcry; more than 28,000 users signed a Change.org petition asking Whip Media to save TV Time through crowdfunding or subscription support. Before the app was pulled, TV Time provided a tool so users could download their personal data, and Bingers now offers a way to import from those files.

Pinto, who started TV Time in 2011 under the original name TVShow Time as what he described as a "funny side project," announced Bingers' expected end-of-July 2026 launch on iOS and Android via his personal Instagram account in mid-July. TechCrunch had reported on July 13, 2026 that Pinto was building Bingers as a new home for fans of the shut-down app.

Bingers revives the social features that made TV Time a community hub for viewers. Users can create profiles, comment on shows and movies, add photos and GIFs to their comments, rate episodes, express opinions with emoji reactions, and vote on favorite characters. The social layer is central to the app's identity rather than an add-on.

Bingers is designed to do most of its work directly on your phone rather than on the company's computers. That means things like your viewing calendar and watchlist run on your device, which keeps the company's costs down. Instead of ads or a paid subscription, the app asks users to contribute money directly to help cover server costs.

The broader context here is a familiar pattern. A popular app builds up millions of users over more than a decade, gets bought by another company, and is eventually shut down when that company decides to pursue different priorities. In this case, Whip Media's shift to AI ended a product that had reached 26.4 million installs, and the founder is rebuilding from scratch without the original infrastructure or corporate backing.

What makes Bingers worth watching is the data story as much as the feature set. Before TV Time disappeared, it gave users a way to download their viewing histories, episode ratings, and watchlists. Bingers can import that data. That matters because, for a social tracking app, the accumulated record of what you watched, when, and how you felt about it is the core asset. Lose that, and you lose the community that made the app valuable.

The contribution-based model is also a practical bet on whether user loyalty from 26 million installs translates into enough ongoing support to keep servers running. It avoids the advertising pressure that often pushes apps toward addictive design choices, and it skips a subscription paywall that would split the community right when it needs to move together. Whether it grows beyond early adopters is an open question.

For developers, the technical approach is the most interesting part. Running the calendar and watchlist on users' phones means the company only needs servers for social features and syncing data. That is a sensible trade-off for a small, community-funded team, though it does place some battery and performance demands on the user's phone and makes it harder to keep everything consistent across multiple devices.

Bingers launches into a streaming landscape where viewers juggle many services, and a tracking app that pulls everything together fills a real need. The question is whether a founder-led, community-funded app can keep the social connections and data that made TV Time sticky. Pinto built the original. He now has to rebuild the community around it.