YouTube App No Longer Available on 3rd-Gen Apple TV, AirPlay Now Required to Watch Videos

[savink]

Its another of that "disgusting corporate behaviour". they aren't doing this to improve customer experience. they are just looking at ways to force you to keep buying new products.

I had a "good-as-new" Apple TV 3rd gen which was used for YouTube. that's a brick now.

 

[Adam-Jobs]

Fire stick is better than a chromecast but I pay google just to get rid of ads on their site. The fire stick has so much content in your face that its trying to sell you that I returned the darn thing because it got so annoying. If I didnt have to navigate through a minefield of ads to get to my content it wouldn't be so bad. But if you have small children they wont know why they can't watch everything they click on. A fire stick without a prime subscription when all you need the device for is to watch your locally streamed content is not worth it, better to pay more for something that does not get in the way of that every time you turn it on.

fair points! I agree with them. First thing I did was clear the advertisements and other bloat ware from the fire stick when I got it. Plenty of YouTube videos showing this, took me less than ten mins.

 

[Marli]

So buy a different remote.

Shocking.

Shouldnt have to when buying overpriced gadgets.. Given Apple TV is basically defunct these days, wont be an issue.

 

[Geronimo]

I did the same for mine at christmas and the difference from a $200 apple tv to a $50 dongle was very noticeable. It was such a watered down experience filled with unexpected difficulty and slow or just buggy hardware. Every feature Apple put into the apple tv to save me time is noticeably absent from the chromecast. The chromecast is its own thing but do not expect everything to work as nicely or even as fast as it does on the apple tv. Its fine if you never experienced a newer apple tv because you wont know what your missing. I would say an old old apple tv would still behave better performance and be more intuitive than the chromecast is today. I'm sure its fine once you know its limitations but changing the way I engage with a digital device on the big screen just feels worse on the chromecast than the apple tv.

I've used an Apple TV 4K for a few years now and I disagree about the new Chromecast with Google TV. Similar to the TV app on the ATV4K, it offers curated recommendations across the services you use and lets you maintain a unified watchlist (which you can even add to and manage from within the Google search function of a web browser). It also has a cross-app Continue Watching row.

It is a bit slower than the Apple TV 4K but for the most part it's not really noticeable. (Maybe in playing games it is but it's very quick in navigating UIs and controlling video streams.) The only real gripe I had in that regard is that the home screen is sometimes slow to load the content tile graphics when you return to it (like a webpage that hesitates to load).

I still prefer my ATV4K over it but, again, it's a $170 device versus just $50 for the Chromecast with Google TV. (And while I'm OK with the Apple TV touch remote, a lot of folks hate it and would prefer the Chromecast's remote.)

 

[Geronimo]

Fire stick is better than a chromecast but I pay google just to get rid of ads on their site. The fire stick has so much content in your face that its trying to sell you that I returned the darn thing because it got so annoying. If I didnt have to navigate through a minefield of ads to get to my content it wouldn't be so bad. But if you have small children they wont know why they can't watch everything they click on. A fire stick without a prime subscription when all you need the device for is to watch your locally streamed content is not worth it, better to pay more for something that does not get in the way of that every time you turn it on.

Yeah, I really dislike the Fire TV UI that so aggressively pushes content from Amazon. Google TV has a WAY better UI. It will still recommend some content that's only available via rental or purchase from Google but not a ton. And it lets you select which subscription services you use so that it focuses recommendations on titles from those services (plus a few free ad-supported ones like Tubi).

 

[MacUserUserName]

As of today, YouTube has stopped supporting the YouTube app on third-generation Apple TV models, which means the YouTube channel is no longer available as a native option for watching YouTube on this Apple TV model.

Now that the app is defunct, third-generation Apple TV users will need to AirPlay YouTube content from a compatible Apple device like an iPhone or iPad to watch YouTube on the big screen.

The app's removal is limited to the third-generation Apple TV models. YouTube stopped supporting the second-generation Apple TV models back in 2015. The fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models are not impacted as they have access to the tvOS App Store and the tvOS YouTube app.

• How to Watch YouTube on a Third-Generation Apple TV

Various app developers have slowly been phasing out support for the third-generation Apple TV. In May 2020, HBO's apps were removed, and last week, the MLB app was pulled.

Those who have a third-generation Apple TV that are thinking of upgrading might want to hold off, as there is a refresh rumored to be coming later this year.

The new Apple TV is expected to feature a faster processor and more storage space, plus there could be a new remote control and U1 chip integration to allow it to better interface with other Apple devices. There could also be a gaming focus, with Apple rumored to be working on hardware that would support console-level games.

Article Link: YouTube App No Longer Available on 3rd-Gen Apple TV, AirPlay Now Required to Watch Vide

And cue the moaners complaining that they can't run Youtube on their Apple Lisa...