tvOS 26 Adds These New Features to Your Apple TV

[MacRumors]

Apple this week announced tvOS 26, which is now available in developer beta. The upcoming software update includes a handful of new features for the Apple TV, although some of the changes are only available on newer models.

The most obvious change is a new Liquid Glass design, which was also introduced across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and watchOS 26. The new design language includes shimmery app icons, and translucent elements that reflect colors. The new design is only visible on the Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) and Apple TV 4K (3rd generation).

In the TV app, movies and TV show posters are now shown in vertical cards, which take up less space on the screen than the previous horizontal cards.

With an optional new setting, tvOS 26 can automatically display profiles when your Apple TV wakes, so that you can quickly access your watchlist and personalized recommendations in the TV app, as well as your Apple Music playlists.

tvOS 26 will link login information to your Apple Account for supported apps, making it easier for you to sign in to apps when setting up an Apple TV.

On the Apple TV, Apple Music subscribers have access to an Apple Music Sing karaoke feature that lowers the volume of the song's vocals so that you can sing along to the on-screen lyrics. tvOS 26 takes Apple Music Sing a step further by allowing you to use your iPhone as a wireless microphone, with your voice amplified through the TV's speakers. Plus, your friends and family can use their iPhones to queue up songs, or react with on-screen emoji.

In order to use an iPhone as a microphone for Apple Music Sing, you will need to have the latest Apple TV 4K (3rd generation) running tvOS 26.

Apple Music Sing has also gained lyrics translation for select songs in select languages.

FaceTime has received some enhancements on tvOS 26, including incoming call notifications, Contact Posters when starting a call, and Live Captions in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish.

tvOS 26 lets you designate any AirPlay speaker as the permanent speaker for your Apple TV.

The update also adds new Aerial screen savers captured across India.

These are only the new features that Apple highlighted in its tvOS 26 press release, so expect more changes to be uncovered in the betas.

tvOS 26 will be released to the general public later this year. The update is compatible with all Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K models.

Article Link: tvOS 26 Adds These New Features to Your Apple TV

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Can you have profiles without an corresponding Apple Account? Locally?

That really bugs me with Apple TV+. Wife doesn't own anything Apple, and doesn't want to create an account just to have TV profile. Every other streaming service has them.

 

[Rob__Mac]

tvOS 26 will link login information to your Apple Account for supported apps, making it easier for you to sign in to apps when setting up an Apple TV.

Is this the same as "your apps (Netflix, Prime etc.) will align their profiles with your system profile"? Because there seems to be quite a bit of ambiguity here and I, for one, really hope this is the case!

 

[nuckinfutz]

What exactly do TV OS developers do all day?

Maybe they're working on other projects and for a break they come into the TV OS

room and drop a few lines of code as they watch Severance.

 

[svish]

The new design is nice. Will be nice to set up the new Aerial screen savers. The improvements to Sing are also nice additions.

 

[norbinhouston]

Yay, hopefully my local movie library will also now show vertical movie posters. Originally Apple TVs showed vertical so I formatted all my movies to show it that way, but along the way someone at Apple decided it should be horizontal so my posters look like instagram on tv. Why they do this is beyond me.

 

[eclipse01]

it will be nice to be able to use my Sonos speaker as a permanent Apple TV playback device finally!

 

[gaximus]

Is this the same as "your apps (Netflix, Prime etc.) will align their profiles with your system profile? Because there seems to be quite a bit of ambiguity here and I, for one, really hope this is the case!

I think this is what it mean, expect Netflix probably won't adopt this API, because they don't use any of the AppleTV APIs.

 

[MacAttack2024]

Finally the login screen for multiple users, thought it would look a little more liquid glassy and high end tho..

 

[kiranmk2]

Is this the same as "your apps (Netflix, Prime etc.) will align their profiles with your system profile"? Because there seems to be quite a bit of ambiguity here and I, for one, really hope this is the case!

I think this is what it mean, expect Netflix probably won't adopt this API, because they don't use any of the AppleTV APIs.

I hope this works this way - my wife never switches to her account other than in Netflix, so her viewing habbits corrupt my YouTube, BBC and Prime Video profile. If she had to pick her profile when waking the AppleTV, which then set her profile in these apps, it would make my life (and recommended viewing lists) better!

 

[turbineseaplane]

What exactly do TV OS developers do all day?

Maybe they're working on other projects and for a break they come into the TV OS

room and drop a few lines of code as they watch Severance.

I feel like it's one guy named Brian and he does it part time.

 

[jonnyb098]

Not adding the Games app seems like a giant oversight or....they are planning to make a big splash with it later when announcing a new Apple TV. But that would be WAY too logical for them to do. Like stick an M4 or (coming soon) M5 chip in an Apple TV and instantly make it a console.

 

[McKodiak]

With an optional new setting, tvOS 26 can automatically display profiles when your Apple TV wakes, so that you can quickly access your watchlist and personalized recommendations in the TV app, as well as your Apple Music playlists.

Tears of joy...😭

 

[kiranmk2]

No real innovation in TvOS for years...

How about integrating smart lighting control to give an Amblight-esque experience with Homekit-compatible bulbs and light strips? How about developing a ML-based image reconstruction technique to better upscale 480/720 resolution footing to 4k? How about an App (or AirPlay 3) to stream games from your Mac (or PC) to the Apple TV in the same vein as Steam Link (and then open it up to other developers)? How about a robust program/film recommendation system for the AppleTV app based on al lthe streaming Apps you've connected to that? How about bringing back the trailers App rather than that abombination that is Trailers within the AppleTV app?

 

[dobratzp]

Yay, hopefully my local movie library will also now show vertical movie posters. Originally Apple TVs showed vertical so I formatted all my movies to show it that way, but along the way someone at Apple decided it should be horizontal so my posters look like instagram on tv. Why they do this is beyond me.

I just finished updating the cover artwork for all the M4V files my whole TV.app movie library to be 16:9 artwork so that it looks nice in the app and also when browsed on the Apple TV box. Movies actually come with 2:3 artwork as JPEG on the disc itself and they are easier to find on the web. I don't know why all the streaming services decided to switch to 16:9 artwork.

 

[davidh2k]

Day 329 of asking for Bitstream Audio Support.

Come on Apple, you could do it on the Mac, you can do it on the Apple TV as well.

 

[gaximus]

I hope this works this way - my wife never switches to her account other than in Netflix, so her viewing habbits corrupt my YouTube, BBC and Prime Video profile. If she had to pick her profile when waking the AppleTV, which then set her profile in these apps, it would make my life (and recommended viewing lists) better!

Same, I almost always use the "Watch Next" on my Apple TV Home Screen. And it is just filled with all the kids', and wife's stuff.

 

[DMinTX]

Are the deprecated iTunes Shows & iTUnes Movies icons still there? I find it odd they didn’t go away long ago.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Are the deprecated iTunes Shows & iTUnes Movies icons still there? I find it odd they didn’t go away long ago.

People must still use them.

Why does this bother people?

Just put them in a folder with any other Apps you don't use.

 

[DMinTX]

People must still use them.

Why does this bother people?

Just put them in a folder with any other Apps you don't use.

Well, they just tell you to use the TV app and do nothing. Why bother? Because I have been asked more than once why they are there in the first place. Confusing users is not a goal of Apple’s UX team.

 

[GtrDude]

Just make Apple TV such that when you turn it off it won’t come on and turn on everything else with it.

 

[orbital~debris]

Not adding the Games app seems like a giant oversight or....they are planning to make a big splash with it later when announcing a new Apple TV. But that would be WAY too logical for them to do. Like stick an M4 or (coming soon) M5 chip in an Apple TV and instantly make it a console.

I think there's a small chance something like this may be what's planned.

If you visit apple.com/os, tvOS is not among the OS tabs. I'm wondering if this is because Apple have held back discussion of more features for tvOS because they're dependent on some new hardware which they'd prefer to introduce at another time & place…

 

[turbineseaplane]

Well, they just tell you to use the TV app and do nothing. Why bother? Because I have been asked more than once why they are there in the first place. Confusing users is not a goal of Apple’s UX team.

Just don't worry about it
👍

 

[macbookpro212]

Sing support for only one generation of Apple TV! Seriously?

 

[Belisama]

I'm thrilled to discover the brilliant result of many years of hard work by the dynamic Apple tvOS team.
I can't wait to instal the update and feel the taste of revolution.