Apple TV Search Expands to 10 More Apps, Including Apple Music, TBS, and TNT

[MacRumors]

Apple TV universal search received a major update this week, expanding to 10 new apps in the United States. On the fourth-generation Apple TV, users can now search for movies and TV shows on Apple Music, Animal Planet GO, Crunchyroll, CuriosityStream, Investigation Discovery GO, Science Channel GO, TBS, TNT, TLC GO, and Tribeca Shortlist.

For those unfamiliar with universal search, it's a feature that allows users to conduct Siri voice searches or text-based searches to find TV and movie content across a wide range of channels. At launch, universal search only supported a few channels, but Apple has been rapidly expanding the feature to encompass additional channels.

Apple TV universal search is now available for a wider number of apps in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K., but the feature is limited to iTunes and Netflix in France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. In some other countries and regions, only movies in iTunes are supported.

Meanwhile, in Germany, users can now search for episodes on Galileo.

Article Link: Apple TV Search Expands to 10 More Apps, Including Apple Music, TBS, and TNT

 

[freediverx]

Universal Search: the easiest way to find crap you don't want to see on channels you don't watch.®

 

[sinsin07]

Universal Search: the easiest way to find crap you don't want to see on channels you don't watch.®

Why would you be searching for crap?

 

[profets]

I applaud their efforts to bring on as many services as possible. But it's so rough outside of the US, and I still wish we could have some form of universal search for local stuff (thinking Plex..)

 

[musika]

Apple Music seriously wasn't supported until now?

 

[2010mini]

Good. The more development for this product, the better it becomes.

 

[2457282]

With the new TV app, it seems like almost redundant services. The TV app consolidates all your shows into one app, but you can use siri to search across all the other apps. I guess you can search for stuff you don't have in the TV app and then bring it in?? Hopefully, this will become more clear as we use the products and the continue to mature.

 

[StevenPG]

I played around with the TV app last night on ATV 4 and really think Apple has a good thing going with this. BUT they need to get way more companies signed up for single sign on.

 

[malexandria]

Universal Search: the easiest way to find crap you don't want to see on channels you don't watch.®

A stupid comment from someone who think they are being "witty." Because everyone searches for stuff they don't want found.
[doublepost=1481730969][/doublepost]I like the idea of the TV App, if for no other reason than the single sign on. But I always found it ridiculous that the ATV never had the ability to automatically show you your recently watched shows/movies. It's annoying to watch something and then after you leave it, you have to scroll through an entire list just to find what I was recently watching.

For example I have 500 Movies and probably 100 TV Shows, if I'm watching X-Men and leave off, I have to scroll through a list of 500 movies to get to the X-Men before I resume and scrolling using the ATV remote flaky.

Granted I can tell Siri to find X-men, but again a pointless Step. I just want to launch my purchased Movie or TV Shows thing and see a recently watched or up next (if I'm watching a TV Series) option at the top. The idea that they have to create this whole convoluted "uniformed" TV app thing just to get that one simple feature is asinine. I really hate the "new" Apple and would leave in a heart beat but Windows is terrible and I'm locked into stupid iTunes.

 

[TurboPGT!]

50+ Apps now included in Universal Search.

Now why aren't these 50+ Apps part of the TV App?

Why must everything content-related be so goddamn painful?
[doublepost=1481731172][/doublepost]

I like the idea of the TV App, if for no other reason than the single sign on.

Sigh. Yet another person that doesn't realize that the TV App and SSO have (almost) nothing to do with one another.

 

[mxmgodin]

Oh! Happy for Crunchyroll to be onboard! Here in Canada, universal search is rather anemic, with iTunes and Netflix being pretty much the only two services supported.

 

[BJMRamage]

But I always found it ridiculous that the ATV never had the ability to automatically show you your recently watched shows/movies. It's annoying to watch something and then after you leave it, you have to scroll through an entire list just to find what I was recently watching.

For example I have 500 Movies and probably 100 TV Shows, if I'm watching X-Men and leave off, I have to scroll through a list of 500 movies to get to the X-Men before I resume and scrolling using the ATV remote flaky.

I have been wanting this too. the idea that I could be watching something on my MBP or iPhone or iPad and then want to quickly resume on the AppleTV doesn't seem so hard. I get the attraction of the Most recent list...and how Apple promotes the iTunes store with popular titles too but Just clicking back to a show I started or a list of seasons didn't seem 'that' hard to do.

I guess it just took a while to figure out how to monetize the situation more. just having previously watched/started isn't going to bring in more money. having what they have with the TV App to help promote new stuff will get them more money. Wondering if the new curated shows/movies will be better than the "iTunes suggests these movies for you" oh, what's that, you already have 9 of 10 of those? oh well. the suggested list should be somewhat personalized and NOT show movies you already have on iTunes.Maybe their recommended titles should be a list of 25-50 and they show the top ten excluding any you already have...if you have them all, then i don't know but it would be similar to how it is now I guess.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Still no "My Computer"?

 

[cmmncw]

The article forgot to mention that Discovery GO was added too. Guess that actually makes it eleven new apps.

 

[profets]

A stupid comment from someone who think they are being "witty." Because everyone searches for stuff they don't want found.
[doublepost=1481730969][/doublepost]I like the idea of the TV App, if for no other reason than the single sign on. But I always found it ridiculous that the ATV never had the ability to automatically show you your recently watched shows/movies. It's annoying to watch something and then after you leave it, you have to scroll through an entire list just to find what I was recently watching.

For example I have 500 Movies and probably 100 TV Shows, if I'm watching X-Men and leave off, I have to scroll through a list of 500 movies to get to the X-Men before I resume and scrolling using the ATV remote flaky.

Granted I can tell Siri to find X-men, but again a pointless Step. I just want to launch my purchased Movie or TV Shows thing and see a recently watched or up next (if I'm watching a TV Series) option at the top. The idea that they have to create this whole convoluted "uniformed" TV app thing just to get that one simple feature is asinine. I really hate the "new" Apple and would leave in a heart beat but Windows is terrible and I'm locked into stupid iTunes.

I have been wanting this too. the idea that I could be watching something on my MBP or iPhone or iPad and then want to quickly resume on the AppleTV doesn't seem so hard. I get the attraction of the Most recent list...and how Apple promotes the iTunes store with popular titles too but Just clicking back to a show I started or a list of seasons didn't seem 'that' hard to do.

I guess it just took a while to figure out how to monetize the situation more. just having previously watched/started isn't going to bring in more money. having what they have with the TV App to help promote new stuff will get them more money. Wondering if the new curated shows/movies will be better than the "iTunes suggests these movies for you" oh, what's that, you already have 9 of 10 of those? oh well. the suggested list should be somewhat personalized and NOT show movies you already have on iTunes.Maybe their recommended titles should be a list of 25-50 and they show the top ten excluding any you already have...if you have them all, then i don't know but it would be similar to how it is now I guess.

This might not work with purchased / DRMd media, but Plex does a perfect job for exactly what you describe. You can have the client on any device (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, etc), and it always starts in a 'Discover' tab with a summary of recently added media and the 3 most recent shows/movies that were playing (so you can resume). Really bloody well done.

But yes, I do agree, for iTunes Movies or TV Shows, once you're beyond a handful of purchases it becomes unwieldy to sort through them all. Even the way it handles TV shows, if you want to go see a new episode you have to scroll horizontally through every season & episode to get to the most current. Makes you wonder if the people who designed it even use the product themselves.

 

[BJMRamage]

Still no "My Computer"?

so, if I have Home Videos stored on my MacBook's iTunes I cannot easily get to them with the new AppleTV?

with ATV 3rd gen I think I go through My Computer and select the home sharing iTunes and can see music, tv, movies, Home Movies stored on that computer/iTunes.

 

[profets]

so, if I have Home Videos stored on my MacBook's iTunes I cannot easily get to them with the new AppleTV?

with ATV 3rd gen I think I go through My Computer and select the home sharing iTunes and can see music, tv, movies, Home Movies stored on that computer/iTunes.

There is a Computers app, so you can see content shared using Home Sharing from a Mac, but what I think he was referring to was that this shared content is still not part of universal search.

 

[BJMRamage]

There is a Computers app, so you can see content shared using Home Sharing from a Mac, but what I think he was referring to was that this shared content is still not part of universal search.

oh, OK. good to know.
Maybe Apple will say it is to not 'index' search a personal computer....though it also helps that there is no money to make from it either.
[doublepost=1481734593][/doublepost]

This might not work with purchased / DRMd media, but Plex does a perfect job for exactly what you describe. You can have the client on any device (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, etc), and it always starts in a 'Discover' tab with a summary of recently added media and the 3 most recent shows/movies that were playing (so you can resume). Really bloody well done.

But yes, I do agree, for iTunes Movies or TV Shows, once you're beyond a handful of purchases it becomes unwieldy to sort through them all. Even the way it handles TV shows, if you want to go see a new episode you have to scroll horizontally through every season & episode to get to the most current. Makes you wonder if the people who designed it even use the product themselves.

I have heard of this and Infuse...I don't know if these are similar or not or how they all work. I probably need to take the time to really look into all this and a possible "hub" or external drive that could help work with this, rather than keep a desktop machine on all the time. if that is all even possible.

 

[profets]

oh, OK. good to know.
Maybe Apple will say it is to not 'index' search a personal computer....though it also helps that there is no money to make from it either.
[doublepost=1481734593][/doublepost]


I have heard of this and Infuse...I don't know if these are similar or not or how they all work. I probably need to take the time to really look into all this and a possible "hub" or external drive that could help work with this, rather than keep a desktop machine on all the time. if that is all even possible.

Plex and Infuse are both somewhat similar but do work differently. Essentially they're Media managers / players that auto download metadata so you see artwork and all that jazz.

Plex requires a server component, can be installed on a Mac, Windows computer or even a NAS in some instances. The Plex server you build your library within (point it to your movies folders, tv shows, music, etc). Plex builds the library, and then you use the client app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV. All devices will see one library and all updates (new media, currently watched items, watched/unwatched status, etc).

Infuse is also a media manager, but designed to be more standalone I believe (not 100% familiar with it). It's nice as you can install it on an Apple TV, and point it directly to the shared folders from a computer or NAS where you have media. It'll build the media library and have it accessible right on the Apple TV. Not sure how it would work if you wanted to have it accessible from multiple devices though.

 

[Canadia69]

WHEN WILL SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL APPS!!!! It's been over a year now and we keep seeing so many US supported apps but none for Canadian or other country...one of the main reason I bought this overprice Apple TV is because I thought universal search was very cool....and yet I can't use it (except for Netflix).....cmon apple, give us Crave Tv support, or Amazon Prime or Bell Fibe (now that its FINALLY OUT IN CANADA) ...

Being Canadian sucks..

 

[camnchar]

Useless to me until it supports Plex. And it will probably never support Plex.

 

[Creek0512]

Apple Music seriously wasn't supported until now?

You have always been able to say "Play this song". This looks like it's support for video content in Apple Music, with all the reports of Apple making their own video series.

 

[marty1980]

The TV app only provides an app to visual the search results Siri could already pull up on universal search.

The lost of supported service providers is extremely short. Comcast Xfinity isn't even supported.

The UI and design actually makes discovery of new things to watch a chore.

I don't understand why Apple felt it was time to release this app. Maybe a few years down the road it will be more useful, but for now it's not very useful for a lot of people and I question who Apple thought would use this at launch.

And the upcoming Trump administration looks to make it harder for the app to improve with the ideals of the administration and what those ideals mean for recent FCC efforts that would have helped improve software like the TV app.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

so, if I have Home Videos stored on my MacBook's iTunes I cannot easily get to them with the new AppleTV?

with ATV 3rd gen I think I go through My Computer and select the home sharing iTunes and can see music, tv, movies, Home Movies stored on that computer/iTunes.

Looks like someone else jumped in on my behalf but no, I didn't phrase this well. I use the home sharing feature on my 4th generation Apple TVs and it works well, I'm just disappointed that universal search support has never been added for this type of content. The rationale I've seen used is that the search is server side so does not have an index of my local content but this could easily be extended to search both server and local then reconcile both result sets together.

 

[expectdelay]

Universal Search: the easiest way to find crap you don't want to see on channels you don't watch.®

100% wrong. Its a very strong feature.
[doublepost=1481740341][/doublepost]I'v

Apple Music seriously wasn't supported until now?

There must be some nuance to what the added, because I have been using universal search with apple music for a long time.