Universes

A universe puts a whole franchise in one place, films and series together, in the order the story happens. Open the Marvel Cinematic Universe and you see every film and season in story order, which ones are in your library, what you've watched, what to watch next and what hasn't come out yet.

Universes arrived in server 0.12.0 and are on the web app today, at app.tofa.tv and on your server's own web page. They're on Apple TV from version 2.1.0, and come to the other TV apps with their next updates.

Where universes come from#

We curate each universe's titles, order and chapters in tofa's metadata service, and every server gets the same list. A series can appear more than once, one season at a time, where its seasons sit at different points in the story (for example Loki, Season 2). When we update a universe, your server picks up the change within about 10 minutes.

You see a universe once your library has at least one released title from it. Universes can't be edited from a server, but an admin can replace a universe's artwork.

Find a universe#

• Discover, then the Universes tab.
• Browse, then Collections. Universes are listed with your other collections.
• On a title's page, the Part of row shows the universe it belongs to. The last card, See all, opens the whole universe in story order.
• Continue the saga on Home, once you've started one (see below).
• Search finds universes by name.

The universe page#

The top of the page tells you where you are, for example "38 titles in story order · 20 in your library · 5 watched · 2 coming". Below it, a strip has one segment per title: shaded for watched, in your library or not in your library, an outline for titles that aren't out yet, and a dot on the one that's up next.

Each title is labelled Watched, Up next, In progress, In your library, Requested or Not in your library. Up next is the first title in your library, in story order, that you haven't finished. One button plays it, or continues it if you've started. If you're caught up on everything released, the page tells you what's next and when it comes out.

Titles that aren't out yet keep their place in the story with a Coming date, or Coming soon when there's no date yet. They never count as up next.

Choose any poster to bring that title to the top of the page with its own Play or Request button. The ⋯ menu on each poster has Details, Mark watched or Mark unwatched, Watchlist and, for titles you don't have, Request.

Story order or release order#

The Order switch changes between Story order, the default, and Release order, which sorts by year with unreleased titles last. Position labels such as "7 of 38" always keep the story-order number, so you can tell where a title sits in the story either way. The choice is remembered in that browser.

Request what's missing#

If your server takes requests, Request missing asks for everything in the universe you don't have yet, or just one chapter's titles when you start from that chapter. Every missing title starts ticked, and series show their seasons so you can pick which ones. Untick anything you don't want, then choose Request.

Requests follow your server's usual rules: some are sent straight away and some wait for the owner to approve them. See Request titles for how requests work and what a server needs to offer them.

Continue the saga#

Once you're partway through a universe, Home shows a Continue the saga row, right after Continue Watching. Each card shows the next title, the universe's strip and how many you've watched. A universe also stays in the row when you're caught up and more is on the way.

You can move or hide the row like any other Home row, under Settings, then Home, then Home Screen.

Turn universes off for a profile#

Universes are on for every profile by default. To turn them off, open Settings, then Appearance, and switch off Universes. That hides the Part of row on title pages and the Continue the saga row on Home for that profile. The Universes tab in Discover stays, so you can still browse them.