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tvOS 26 Brings New Aerial Screen Saver Controls, India Footage

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Apple's upcoming tvOS 26 update brings some neat new features to Apple TV, including a redesigned TV app, a new profile selector on wake, and a design overhaul matching Apple's new multi-platform spanning Liquid Glass aesthetic. However, another of its less talked-about enhancements has to do with Apple TV's visually impressive Aerial screen savers.

tvOS-26-aerial-screen-savers.jpg

With tvOS 26, you can now manually select and deselect individual Aerial screen savers that you want to appear on the screen, bringing new levels of customization to the experience.

If you go to the Screen Saver menu in Settings, you'll find new granular controls over specific screen savers within the Cityscape, Earth, Landscape, and Underwater collections. The new "Choose Aerials" option lets you curate a personalized playlist of your favorite scenic vistas – much like Mac users have enjoyed since macOS Sonoma launched in 2023.

For lovers of Aerial screen savers, an added bonus is that Apple is also adding new aerial footage captured across India, including landscapes from Goa and Kerala, expanding the collection of high-quality screen savers that have become a signature feature of Apple TV.

If you've registered with Apple's Beta Program, you can try tvOS 26 early by going to Settings ➝ System ➝ Software Updates and selecting Get Beta Updates. The official release of tvOS 26 is coming in the fall, and we are also expecting a refreshed Apple TV 4K to launch sometime between September and December.

Article Link: tvOS 26 Brings New Aerial Screen Saver Controls, India Footage
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/08/01/tvos-26-custom-aerial-screen-saver-apple-tv/
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Especially the landscape aerial screensavers on Apple TV and Mac are stunning. More of them. One of the best executed features on Apple TV imo.

“With tvOS 26, you can now manually select and deselect individual Aerial screen savers that you want to appear on the screen, bringing new levels of customization to the experience.”

Wanted this for a while. Thank you.
 
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Moonjumper said:
Being able to select which footage to use is a great addition. For a long time my Apple TV box only seemed to play the most boring option on repeat, so I can stop that now.
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Yes selection now is handy. You could though skip ones you disliked with the remote.

I had turned off all categories besides Landscapes, so this finer setting may now mean I can reactivate other categories and fine tune my selection. Cityscapes will probably remain off.
 
karnac said:
It's sad that there aren't more aerial locations in the USA. There are a million amazing places here. You know, THE COUNTRY THEY WERE FOUNDED IN.
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Apple needs a good kick in general regarding their wallpaper division. Many of those modern and default wallpapers (still ones) are the lamest and unimaginative I’ve seen. Their landscape aerial wallpapers are stunning, they just need to add many more. More from the US, but more from other places too. Users such as yourself could then choose what they wanted. Here are some diverse missing US landscape locations:

Rocky Mountains, Central Park, Blue Ridge Mountains, Great Smoky Mountains, Olympic Peninsula, Badlands, Everglades, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, Grand Tetons, Glacier National Park, Acadia National Park, Death Valley, Saguaro National Park, Shenandoah Valley, Crater Lake, Great Sand Dunes, Arches National Park, Red River Gorge, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Okefenokee Swamp, Cascade Range, White Sands National Park, Adirondack Mountains, Denali National Park.

Apple could allow submissions of still wallpapers and aerial screensavers yearly rewarding financially those they consider to achieve a high desired standard of excellence, approving them for inclusion in their image library for users to select from, giving users a broader but excellent library to choose from (to users this would be far more beneficial than the Shot on iPhone campaign, and makers would still get rewarded, with Apple taking care to ensure photos and videos are legit and original). User should also only have downloaded those they wish to use, with others at a reduced size until they choose them, with the ability to delete again—may be partially true already.
 
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m4mario said:
There used to be an old thing called travelling. Happy people liked to see the entire world.
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Because being a "happy person" automatically means you can afford that?

Maybe the issue is not that they're adding more cool screensavers, it's that someone had to write an article about it and people had to comment on it complaining?
 
I think it's a great addition. I remember giving feedback to Apple years ago on this - to request being able to select locations. The last thing I want is my room being filled with images of one particular city full of tacky monuments, built off the back of slave labour and massive human rights abuses.
 
AppleSOS said:
Because being a "happy person" automatically means you can afford that?

Maybe the issue is not that they're adding more cool screensavers, it's that someone had to write an article about it and people had to comment on it complaining?
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Everyone can afford travel. We all have feet or wheels. It’s all perspective
 
AppleSOS said:
Because being a "happy person" automatically means you can afford that?

Maybe the issue is not that they're adding more cool screensavers, it's that someone had to write an article about it and people had to comment on it complaining?
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The article itself is not a problem. May be the responses.

Also I said: happy people LIKED to travel. Affording it is another thing. My point was that adding places across the world is a good thing. Because it’s nice to see places.
 
professorh said:
Everyone can afford travel. We all have feet or wheels. It’s all perspective
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Everyone can certainly not afford to "see the entire world"... Just as one example, you need to eat while you walk or wheel around. It'd take you a long time to walk around the world. That's a lot of food to pay for with no steady job.

m4mario said:
The article itself is not a problem. May be the responses.

Also I said: happy people LIKED to travel. Affording it is another thing. My point was that adding places across the world is a good thing. Because it’s nice to see places.
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Misunderstood your point. Sorry about that.

I do think more US locations would be nice - but I just think more locations in general would nice. Surely it's not that difficult to throw one of these together with Apple's means. I see the same one or two over and over. I really do enjoy how they look, but I don't think you could ever have too much variety on these.

The comment on the article being written was just a general jab at the things that are "headlines" here now... I think we're all here because we're still trying to recapture some feeling from when "Mac Rumors" were actually interesting and fun and online journalism wasn't what it is today...
 
AppleSOS said:
Everyone can certainly not afford to "see the entire world"... Just as one example, you need to eat while you walk or wheel around. It'd take you a long time to walk around the world. That's a lot of food to pay for with no steady job.



Misunderstood your point. Sorry about that.

I do think more US locations would be nice - but I just think more locations in general would nice. Surely it's not that difficult to throw one of these together with Apple's means. I see the same one or two over and over. I really do enjoy how they look, but I don't think you could ever have too much variety on these.

The comment on the article being written was just a general jab at the things that are "headlines" here now... I think we're all here because we're still trying to recapture some feeling from when "Mac Rumors" were actually interesting and fun and online journalism wasn't what it is today...
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“Online Journalism” 😂
Nice to hear that.

Anyway, if you look around YouTube, you will find a version of journalism. It’s hard to find the good ones, but it is what modern journalism looks like.
 
I bet the photos of India are either the beautiful landscapes or the wealthy neighborhoods. They wouldn't make screensavers which represent the truth — such as the high incidences of public defecation.
 
I am wanting some beautiful slow moving scenery for my wall, have not owned a TV since the 90's. Is Apple TV the best solution for this? thanks for tips!
 
I've got the original ATV4K and it always seems to cycle the same aerials. I know people set the display to SDR with content matching but then the aerials aren't in 4K. Any solution?

oldwatery said:
More fluff from the company that used to rule innovation. So very sad.
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You must be a blast at parties
 
I have the beta installed... and the UI is clunky. It hiccups a lot. I hope they take notice and don't use it as a ploy to get people to buy the next version.
 
Good to see the new screensavers from India. Nice that the new ones are added to Aerial app for the Mac too.
 
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