Apple to Overhaul TV App, Remove Standalone Apps from Apple TV

[TechRemarker]

Bit confused. Says they will be removing all the AppleTV channels and thus instead people would just purchase through each streaming companies apps as most already do anyway. But that would seem to be an effort to get people to stop using the AppleTV app where those channels are currently, but then this says this is an effort to get people to go to the AppleTV app more, so those seem to be conflicting statements no? Google TV is much less of a mess, since it's one home screen that has all the streaming and apps in one place, rather than AppleTV where apps are on one screen and everything else in AppleTV, with two silos that should be one. Unless this is saying, apps are all moving into the Apple tv app and Apple TV app will be the single home screen which would be great but this doesn't seem to say that. The other major piece they are missing vs Google is dedicate Kids section. As a home with kids, it's a nightmare. Since you either have to add pin lock to adult profiles in every single of the many apps, and deal with typing that in each time, or not put it on but then risk kids getting into all of that. Where is with Google TV, kids section is siloed, and includes just apps and streaming profiles that are meant for kids and the UI is tailored to kids.

 

[jvchappy]

Bummer. I prefer the standalone app for finding when new and preorder movies are available

 

[spinedoc77]

And for goodness sake, please add a Kids or Family section so my young children can actually access the great Apple TV shows that are made for them.

Would be nice to have a system wide account login for the kids as well, I don't want to go into settings and change age ratings every time I want to watch a movie. But many have been asking for this on iOS and iPadOS for forever anyway so most likely little chance.

 

[skeptech]

If they do this, it must be customer/user friendly, rather than advertiser/promoter friendly. Go straight to my viewing list, and give me preferences to exclude categories of promoted programming, e.g., professional sports, "reality" TV, etc.

If all it does is prevent me from bypassing all that advertising, it will fail.

 

[victorvictoria]

This might be the first and only Apple update I skip. I actually WANT to have third party apps stored on my Apple TV devices. Why else have internal memory in them? It's only used to store apps, nothing else. Perhaps if that memory could be repurposed for buffering content or downloading, but that's a pipe dream.

 

[Rob__Mac]

Would be nice to have a system wide account login for the kids as well, I don't want to go into settings and change age ratings every time I want to watch a movie. But many have been asking for this on iOS and iPadOS for forever anyway so most likely little chance.

I have to say, companies that get this right get all my love and $ for making my parenting life easier.

When I first tried out YouTube Kids on the iPad and discovered it had already downloaded a bunch of videos for my son to watch offline, and presented them to him in a nice easy UI, I was over the moon.

 

[TheDauterive]

Still waiting for them to give us an option to remove the massive ads that show up above my Up Next queue in the Watch Now tab. On my iPhone, they take up more than three quarters of the screen. IMO “Watch Now” should only show content I’ve already purchased or is available on services I’ve already subscribed to. And if they are going to show me ads above my Up Next, at least personalize it so it doesn’t show me stuff I’ve already watched.

I’m fine with this change because there’s already a Store tab. But the TV app itself needs a lot of work.

This is nonsense. If you're an Apple fan, that means you love sports. And if you love sports, what you really want to watch next is "Messi Meets America"! Don't you see how happy he gets when he kicks the goals? Of course you do, because Apple plasters it all over your big-screen any time you want to watch the next episode of the show you're watching. 🤬

 

[Rob__Mac]

This might be the first and only Apple update I skip. I actually WANT to have third party apps stored on my Apple TV devices. Why else have internal memory in them? It's only used to store apps, nothing else. Perhaps if that memory could be repurposed for buffering content or downloading, but that's a pipe dream.

I don't think they're talking about 3rd party apps? Just "Movies" and "TV" etc. from Apple

 

[rorschach]

This will suck beans. The TV app is HORRIBLE to navigate, both for browsing and buying content, and to find something that you own to watch. I don't want a bunch of crap from other apps clogging up my view, and the lack of a simple 'watch list' is a glaring omission (up next doesn't cut it). If you want to go back and watch an earlier episode, it's not remotely intuitive.

Totally agree. What I want is for my “Library” to be for both purchased content as well as streaming content that I want to save and organize. I have a couple “go to” shows I put on when I have nothing else I’m watching or just want something on in the background (Frasier, Seinfeld, etc). Why can’t I add those to my Library for easy access whenever I want to quickly pick an episode and play? Up Next is just for single episodes, and then those are removed after you play them.

On top of that, the Library is still missing the ability to see and add playlists and folders on mobile. That’s basic functionality — and it’s already in the Mac app!

 

[TheDauterive]

This might be the first and only Apple update I skip. I actually WANT to have third party apps stored on my Apple TV devices. Why else have internal memory in them? It's only used to store apps, nothing else. Perhaps if that memory could be repurposed for buffering content or downloading, but that's a pipe dream.

I don't think they're removing third party apps (like Hulu and Disney+), just their own iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps.

 

[Berti10]

„Booh!“ No user ratings anymore, only Rotten tomatoes. Those are useful for bad listings like bundles that do not have all in the same resolution etc.

 

[Macalicious2011]

The quality and variety of content in TV+ but the UI is the worst of any streaming service.

My kids a I struggle to navigate it in order to find TV shows or movies for kids.

 

[BornAgainMac]

TV is the worst thing Apple makes. It's glitchy, inconsistent, confusing, and just doesn't work most of the time I try it. Old units, new units, doesn't matter, they're all irritating to use.

My $40 Roku has been utterly flawless, still allows me to AirPlay (and Android friends can cast), and oh yeah it's $40.

The only app that I haven't been able to get to work right on said Roku is, surprise surprise, the Apple TV app. No sound when attempting to play movies. Never been able to get it to work.

A friend of mine introduced me to Roku and the interface was awful. Probably it was just an older model but I purchased an Apple TV and was happier.

 

[jarman92]

It boggles my mind that Apple still hasn’t cut a deal with Netflix to integrate with the TV app.

 

[ArrayDecay]

Mods: this headline is atrocious and confusing. Needs an edit.

 

[-Gonzo-]

This sounds like a good idea. Seems like it could have been part of tvOS 17, though.

It’s actually a terrible idea IMO.

1) you’ll never know what quality a movie you’re wanting to purchase is actually in when it’s linked to a connected service.
ie: in the UK Home Alone 2 shows as being 4K as that’s what it is via Disney+, likewise there’s loads of titles that show as being HD but are actually 4K.

2) Currently you cannot purchase a great deal of complete series tv shows via the atv app. At least this one can be fixed but they haven’t been in a hurry to do so up to this point so I won’t hold my breath that it will be fixed by December either.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

It's already so full of "rent" and "buy" pitches now, adding even more of that doesn't exactly delight me. I try to use it as little as possible because it seems so overwhelmingly seller-centric vs. user-centric already.

If you own your own content, rip your own content, download your own content, try the Orange icon Computers app. It's all nicely organized in one place with no selling/renting push. It's often overlooked by many but it is my household's second most-used app on AppleTV... much more like the original UI of AppleTV vs. the one that looks like Blockbuster (rental store) and Retail (media seller) executives were given complete control.

 

[McWetty]

Tomorrow’s article: “No restructured AppleTV app coming, says Gurman”

 

[rorschach]

It's already so full of "rent" and "buy" pitches now, adding even more of that doesn't exactly delight me. I try to use it as little as possible because it seems so overwhelmingly seller-centric vs. user-centric already.

If you own your own content, rip your own content, download your own content, try the Orange icon Computers app. It's all nicely organized in one place with no selling/renting push. It's often overlooked by many but it is my household's second most-used app on AppleTV... much more like the original UI of AppleTV vs. the one that looks like Blockbuster (rental store) and Retail (media seller) executives were given complete control.

Shhhh. Next they’ll remove Home Sharing, the best kept secret that probably sticks around only because they’ve forgotten it exists.

 

[hurley999jb]

Ugh, that's disappointing. The dedicated apps are faster and much easier to navigate.

Agree. Isn't this the opposite of what they did with iTunes when it got too bloated?

 

[TheDauterive]

Totally agree. What I want is for my “Library” to be for both purchased content as well as streaming content that I want to save and organize. I have a couple “go to” shows I put on when I have nothing else I’m watching or just want something on in the background (Frasier, Seinfeld, etc). Why can’t I add those to my Library for easy access whenever I want to quickly pick an episode and play? Up Next is just for single episodes, and then those are removed after you play them.

On top of that, the Library is still missing the ability to see and add playlists and folders on mobile. That’s basic functionality — and it’s already in the Mac app!

You like the library tab? What I get there (for tv shows at least) is an unbroken list of hundreds of episodes with no way to navigate besides scrolling through all of them. So if I want to watch the Seinfeld finale (why?), I have to scroll through 170 episodes to get to it.

For that reason I prefer the season by season navigation used in the "Up Next" tab. Of course they've just covered that with ads, so it's kinda broken now too.

 

[GeneralChang]

I think that actually would be a good thing but the companies would never go for it. They wouldn't be able to mine your data.

If the entire UI was via the apple tv app and all services had to have channels, it would be much smoother for the user.

I'm mostly thinking about the number of games that get played on my box. If they cut individual apps out, that would be gone

 

[brownpaw]

Great. Also force all other streaming apps to play nice and make their libraries available through the universal search function (looking at you, Vudu...).

 

[indychris]

Don't worry. Ultimately Apple really only wants you to rent, so someday the 'buy' option won't be there anyway, and all that 'buy' clutter will vanish. It's all about subscriptions. Ownership is so outdated.

 

[-Gonzo-]

I’d be all for this as long as they finally give us the option to turn off auto play next episode. I HATE that ”feature” so I usually use the TV Shows app to watch shows.

You have always been able to do so.
Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Auto-Play VideoPreviews > Off

Edit: seems tvOS 17 has broken this particular function for now 👎