I don't see what's cynical about it. Many Apple TV features are now available on third-party devices (such as TVs), so finding new ways to make Apple TV uniquely useful isn't… cynical. It's just a good idea. Why else have a pricey box at all?
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Apple Fitness+ Appears to Be Incompatible With AirPlay
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I love the Fitness app but so disappointed I cannot get the app to my Roku TV. I have tried via my Apple box which is fairly new ( will only allow preview) and lightening cable, with no luck. I am hoping this feedback will reach Apple! It is hard to view on IPhone and IPad unless you stand directly in front of device. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you
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I find this so irritating, has made fitness+ useless for me. I’m not getting a new Apple TV just for this. I want to leave Apple feedback but there is no option to leave feedback for fitness+.
What’s quite annoying is that most of the reviews of fitness+ haven’t mentioned that it doesn’t work on Apple TV. Apple needs to get a lot of negative feedback before they will do anything.
What’s quite annoying is that most of the reviews of fitness+ haven’t mentioned that it doesn’t work on Apple TV. Apple needs to get a lot of negative feedback before they will do anything.
Yes and no. Once subscribed, you can certainly do any of the workouts without wearing the apple watch while you do it. However, in order to get the fitness app on your iphone and be able to sign up for fitness+ in the first place you will definitely be required to have an apple watch series 3 or later running watchOS 7.2 or later paired to your iphone.
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The workout metrics. Fitness+ shows workout metrics from your apple watch in real time right on the screen of the iphone, ipad or apple tv where you are watching the workout exercises. It might not be possible just yet to transfer that to another device over airplay along with the video stream.
Oh Apple will go to great lengths to get people to buy their latest hardware. Look what they did with the new Solo Loop and braided solo loop bands for apple watch.
Apple falsely claims that those new silicon and nylon solo loop bands are only compatible with apple watch series 4 or later, when in reality they are 100% compatible with all earlier apple watch models too, all the way down to the original apple watch. And I know their claim is false because, though I bought a solo loop for my 44 mm series 4, I actually tried putting the band on my old 42 mm OG apple watch too, which I still have lying around, and it worked just fine. Thus, I see no good reason for Apple claiming the new bands are incompatible with series 3 or earlier models, except for Apple wanting owners of those models to think they need to upgrade to the latest models they currently sell (the series 6 and the SE) if they want to be able to use the new bands.
Why should they “officially address” this? Does the company that manufactures your car tell you why it omitted a holographic display system or a hyperdrive? It is what it is: you just have to deal with it.
Apple support has responded two ways so far: "AirPlay support is a known bug that we're working on" and "AirPlay is not supported by Fitness+". I would like some official clarification of this in a support document.
A good answer to your first question is that it would eliminate a lot of frustration for some of their customers; there is no doubt they are aware of this frustration. There might also be a good answers to why they *don't* officially address this.
I'm not sure I understand your second question. You mention features that are not yet technologically possible. This suggests that you consider AirPlay to be such a feature. Are you really suggesting AirPlay support is as of yet technologically impossible? Maybe you're just trying to say that most often companies don't explain why features are omitted. If so, then your examples really muddy your point.
Your last sentence seems to be a representation of a personal philosophy; just put up with decisions like these and don't ask for more or make too much noise when you're disappointed. I hope that's a rare point of view.
I left the feedback under the iPhone category. I had to pick something and it seemed relevant enough. For example, I'd be happy to spend a few bucks on a lightning to HDMI cable if they can make that iPhone solution work.
Apple customer support techs almost certainly do not have any idea why a feature is included or not in a hardware or software offering. They are most likely offering their own personal opinions, for which Apple does not need to account. And somehow I suspect that the couple of dozen people who’ve complained about this here and in Reddit are sufficient to warrant Apple addressing why they chose not to incorporate a feature in an offering.
My second point used deliberately chosen non-existent features to illustrate that the manufacturer of a product does not need to justify why a particular feature is not incorporated into a product. The point is that the list of unincorporated feature is, by definition, nearly infinite, including those which are not yet technically possible. A manufacturer can’t address why each of those unincorporated features were not included.
My last sentence is basically: stop whining. Consumers can’t have everything they want in every product offering. If you don’t like it, don’t buy the underlying offering. That is the most effective way to convey your displeasure.
I think you should leave the feedback under the apple watch category. Whether it’s right or not, Apple seems to consider Fitness+ to be an apple watch feature to the extent that apple included the instructions on how to sign up and use it in the user guide for apple watch and watchOS 7.2, not on the iphone, ipad or apple tv user guides.
I think your analysis is flawed. First of all, Fitness+ is NOT a product it is a service. Second, AirPlay is not a new feature that Apple chose not to incorporate to fitness+; it has existed for years and Apple did incorporate it into Fitness+, only they purposefully prevented its use for casting the Fitness+ workout videos to certain devices such as older apple tv boxes or non-apple smart tv devices (airplay does work with the newer apple tv HD and 4K boxes, for instance). A clear piece of evidence of this is the presence of the airplay button in the video controls on the bottom of the screen while playing a workout in fitness+.
As for your last statement, I believe this time Apple does owe everyone an explanation of what they did with airplay and fitness+ because their move is causing too much grousing among the users. With Apple touting all this time that the best way to enjoy fitness+ is on a large tv screen, practically every single user of fitness+ is or will be upset about not being able to use AirPlay, with the only few exceptions being those users who already owned an apple tv 4k box prior to the launch of fitness+.
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They have varying amounts of information. Apple is responsible for what its support people say. I received a free Apple watch because of what a support person accidentally said to me (happily documented in the downloaded chat transcript).
I don't know what you're trying to say with the last sentence.
There is a difference between a non-existent thing which certainly can't be a feature (e.g. hyperdrive) and an existent thing which isn't a feature. AirPlay is an existent thing (unlike hyperdrive). AirPlay could easily be a feature of Fitness+. And, even though you view it on par with infinitely many imagined features of Fitness+, most people view it as a reasonable and expected feature.
Yeah, I suspected as much. Basically, "if you don't like it then shut up". Nice.
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Actually, as I said before, Airplay IS a feature of Fitness+. Apple does allow AirPlay to work with the latest Apple TV box (the 4K) and the airplay button does show up as part of the controls while playing a workout video. They’re only preventing airplay from working with older Apple TV boxes up to the 3rd gen and with non-apple devices. Clearly a move intended to boost sales of the Apple TV HD and 4K.
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I just tried what you are saying and it works perfectly. I had never tried that before. Sorry I missed that point in your earlier post.
However, if you do it via Screen Mirroring in the Control Center, AirPlay to the Apple TV, it blacks out when the workout starts. I'm not sure what to make of that distinction.
True.
They… they do. If they can't account for what their staff says, they need to train that staff better.
Not helpful.
Wouldn't work for me, using an official Apple lightening to AV adaptor on an Iphone Xs running IOS 14.3. Get the sound but no visual.
What Apple TV do you have? it doesn't work at all with my 3rd gen Apple TV. Neither airplay nor screen mirroring. With Airplay I only get sound on the tv and with mirroring the screen blacks out as you just said. You must have either the Apple TV HD or the Apple TV 4K.
Not always. It didn't work for me. Neither with my 10.5" iPad Pro 2017 nor with with my iPhone XS, in both cases using Apple's official lightning to HDMI dongle.
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Just like me, using official Apple lightning to HDMI dongle and iPhone XS I only get audio but no video on the TV. And the same happened when I tried using the dongle with my 10.5" iPad Pro 2017 instead of the iPhone. No Airplay or Dongle, so basically we're stuck with fitness+ on a small iPhone/iPad screen unless we buy an Apple TV HD or 4K.
Sorry I didn't mention that. I have the Apple TV 4K. And, after 1/8 I will have it permanently since the return period will end for me.
So, to be clear, with my Apple TV 4K I can AirPlay from my iPhone to the Apple TV device if I trigger AirPlay directly from the Fitness+ application. AirPlay does not work when set it up with Screen Mirroring; I get the usual black screen once the workout starts.
I thought so. That works because you have the apple tv 4k. Unless you have that one or the slightly older apple tv HD, airplay won’t find any device to cast to if you trigger airplay directly from the fitness app (i.e., it won’t find a 3rd gen or older apple tv box or non-apple devices).
How's this for a guess... (I'm probably using all the wrong technical language and the idea came from a drug-induced dream.)
It seems like a special video stream is opened over AirPlay when it's triggered from within Fitness+ and the later Apple TV devices can handle that special stream. When AirPlay is opened from Screen Mirroring you get a more generic stream. The fitness video is unwilling to transmit over this generic stream. Some people have speculated that DRM is involved. Maybe DRM support is a feature of the special stream which is required.
From Wikipedia, there's
So maybe nothing to do with DRM, just a special content format that our normal AirPlay devices do not support.
If this is right, then we're out of luck getting TV's with generic AirPlay 2 support working. Maybe Apple will release AirPlay 3 for newer TVs.
It seems like a special video stream is opened over AirPlay when it's triggered from within Fitness+ and the later Apple TV devices can handle that special stream. When AirPlay is opened from Screen Mirroring you get a more generic stream. The fitness video is unwilling to transmit over this generic stream. Some people have speculated that DRM is involved. Maybe DRM support is a feature of the special stream which is required.
From Wikipedia, there's
So maybe nothing to do with DRM, just a special content format that our normal AirPlay devices do not support.
If this is right, then we're out of luck getting TV's with generic AirPlay 2 support working. Maybe Apple will release AirPlay 3 for newer TVs.