This is why Apple TV 4K Siri Remote scrubbing doesn't work on Disney+, other apps

AppleInsider · June 4, 2021 9:39PM

Some features of the new Apple TV 4K Siri Remote won't work properly if a video service, like Disney+ or HBO Max, uses a custom player instead of Apple's tvOS API.

Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

The new Siri Remote has a feature that allows users to scrub through content by using the touch-sensitive control pad as a "scroll wheel." However, some users recently noticed that the feature stopped working on HBO Max after the service ditched Apple's tvOS API.

On Friday, Disney+, which also caught flak for not supporting the new Siri Remote capability, confirmed to The Verge that the scrubbing feature isn't available at all on its own service. That's because, like HBO Max, Disney+ uses its own custom video player.

Scroll wheel scrubbing is only available to apps that use Apple's native media player, and it isn't clear if such features will be made available to third-party player platforms.

Disney+ told The Verge that it plans to develop scrubbing support if and when Apple opens access to control APIs.

Along with HBO Max and the Disney streaming platform, users also reported Siri Remote compatibility issues with Peacock. HBO Max users have reported additional bugs with display quality, Siri commands, and pausing video content.

mobird · June 4, 2021 10:00PM

Unfortunately, the demise of scrubbing.
TV (hardware) streaming platform apps will skirt API's to disrupt the experience that Apple wants for their users even something as small as a scrubbing feature. This isn't the first time or last time there will be these forms of harassment plus I'm sure everyone thinks they can build a better video player to spy on their subscribers.

edited June 2021

jeffreytgilbert · June 4, 2021 11:02PM

This explains why disney’s app always glitches out on me but i never have an issue with the others. Not looking forward to hbo max glitches to come

sdw2001 · June 4, 2021 11:45PM

I don’t have that remote, but I did experience some video issues on Max the other day. Last night I did not, however. Wondering if it’s the app that had issues. Perhaps there was something going on somewhere in the pipeline.

chadbag · June 5, 2021 1:10AM

Everyone should publicly push back on Disney about this. I’ve already tweeted to them about how they should stick with the Apple video APIs and not roll their own and how disappointed I am that their app doesn’t work right on ATV. If they get enough feedback maybe someone there will have an epiphany.

tmonline · June 5, 2021 1:15AM

Not true at all.

Sadly, that’s not how software development works with other companies that uses Apples’ platform to build apps.

Third part developers are not just sitting/standing idle dwindling their thumbs and can jump on any new shiny OS or API released by Apple right away. It will be in pipeline and supported but not now, like how Americans (most first world people who open wallet for any new gadget by Apple) are entitled to think - I want it NOW!

Software features are not a small thing and changes have to be well thought out and various edge case considerations are made before release, unless you understand how it can fit in existing workflow or architecture, tested and pushed out without causing other areas to be affected then may be.

just saying your NOW thinking is a problem. But trust me it’s no fun with broken software that support all functions of new OS.

my 2c.

mobird said:
TV (hardware) streaming platform apps will skirt API's to disrupt the experience that Apple wants for their users even something as small as a scrubbing feature.

edited June 2021

22july2013 · June 5, 2021 2:02AM

Can someone explain why Disney chose to make Disney+ a separate app instead of being available as a channel inside the Apple TV app? What are they gaining from that decision? It seems like they lose functionality by doing that.

glennh · June 5, 2021 2:15AM

Like the earlier commenter stated this is an Accessibility Issue and Apple should require all vetted guests/Apps in Apple’s App Store to fully comply with all Accessibility Controls built into Apple API’s and iOS.

If they do not comply and publicly moan about compliance, kicked them out and let the public opinion shamed them for being closed minded to the needs of others unlike me and the vast majority of people on the planet who do not need the extra help to live their lives fully to their potential!

wgkrueger · June 5, 2021 2:16AM

Sigh, “Disney+ told The Verge that it plans to develop scrubbing support if and when Apple opens access to control APIs.” . Didn’t they choose to not use the Apple APIs instead using some hair-brained scheme their developers said would work. The ego of these senior developers will ruin corporate IT.

22july2013 · June 5, 2021 2:48AM

glennh said:

Like the earlier commenter stated this is an Accessibility Issue and Apple should require all vetted guests/Apps in Apple’s App Store to fully comply with all Accessibility Controls built into Apple API’s and iOS.

If they do not comply and publicly moan about compliance, kicked them out and let the public opinion shamed them for being closed minded to the needs of others unlike me and the vast majority of people on the planet who do not need the extra help to live their lives fully to their potential!

Do you oppose handicapped parking areas? Serious question, not a joke.

jgreg728 · June 5, 2021 3:59AM

The real headline of this article is “Why these apps gotta cut the shit and just become Apple TV Channels”. Sick of this nonsense that these content providers value these kinds of things over user experience. It’s consumer hostile. Disney+, Discovery+, HBO Max, and Peacock should ALL be integrated channels all with the same UI we’ve come to love most with Apple TV App content. These stunts they’re pulling with forcing their crappy proprietary UI on us has to stop already. No one likes it.

edited June 2021

sirbryan · June 5, 2021 4:07AM

Apple's player API is extremely limiting if you want to do custom overlays, play more than one program at a time (2-,3-,4-up), or preview information from other channels or programs, etc. You also have limits on knowing if the content meets the user's content restriction criteria because they don't make that available unless you use their player controller. There's more than one reason there are dozens of custom player API's. Most of them are lousy.

I wrote my own that supported swiping to scrub through the stream, among other things. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple announces those API's at WWDC next week and all this hoopla is over nothing, presuming the dev teams adopt the new gesture recognizers.

mustseeuhdtv · June 5, 2021 5:33AM

Not only can I not scrub in the MLB app, I cannot rewind or fast forward. I have to do 10 sec skips (and that is with my phone as I can’t get the new remote to do anything but pause, play, exit).

rcfa · June 5, 2021 1:23PM

tmonline said:

Not true at all.

Sadly, that’s not how software development works with other companies that uses Apples’ platform to build apps.

Third part developers are not just sitting/standing idle dwindling their thumbs and can jump on any new shiny OS or API released by Apple right away. It will be in pipeline and supported but not now, like how Americans (most first world people who open wallet for any new gadget by Apple) are entitled to think - I want it NOW!

Software features are not a small thing and changes have to be well thought out and various edge case considerations are made before release, unless you understand how it can fit in existing workflow or architecture, tested and pushed out without causing other areas to be affected then may be.

just saying your NOW thinking is a problem. But trust me it’s no fun with broken software that support all functions of new OS.

my 2c.

mobird said:
TV (hardware) streaming platform apps will skirt API's to disrupt the experience that Apple wants for their users even something as small as a scrubbing feature.

The issue isn’t the “NOW thinking”, it’s that companies that USED TO USE Apple’s APIs (which save them a lot of developer time) for reasons of trying to sabotage the experience on AppleTV, the false idea of keeping their own app consistent across platforms (even as they ruin the user experience on each platform) or worse for nefarious reasons by programmers (creating their own job security by making software more complicated and dependent on their own proprietary code), SWITCH from Apple’s well established, well tested, and consistent APIs to some crap developed in-house by people with less experience and less knowledge.

retrogusto · June 5, 2021 3:20PM

Another use-case scenario that can be very frustrating with HBO Max: yesterday I missed some dialog in a movie and it wouldn’t let me rewind at all. A few times in the past, when I asked Siri “what did he say?” it did something weird and I had to restart the app to fix it. HBO has great content, but the new app seems to have serious problems with rewinding. I don’t remember this being a problem with the old HBO app at all.

appleish · June 5, 2021 3:29PM

Make. Content. Providers. Conform. Apple.

Now I'm thinking it wasn't even worth it to upgrade to the new TV/Remote. Maybe should have just gone 100% remote on my iPhone.

+10 seconds... -10 seconds... Yep, it works.

sdw2001 · June 5, 2021 5:07PM

Appleish said:

Make. Content. Providers. Conform. Apple.

Now I'm thinking it wasn't even worth it to upgrade to the new TV/Remote. Maybe should have just gone 100% remote on my iPhone.

+10 seconds... -10 seconds... Yep, it works.

I do that now. Plus pausing and scrubbing is an easy way to skip a large commercial block. I never have to look for the remote or accidentally touch it or any other nonsense.

yoyo2222 · June 5, 2021 5:51PM

How about YouTube app behavior with the new remote? I've gotten used to how it works with the Siri remote but it definitely doesn't work the same way as other players do.

crowley · June 5, 2021 7:38PM

Appleish said:

Make. Content. Providers. Conform. Apple.

Now I'm thinking it wasn't even worth it to upgrade to the new TV/Remote. Maybe should have just gone 100% remote on my iPhone.

+10 seconds... -10 seconds... Yep, it works.

Why should Apple do that?

If apps are crap, people will stop using them. The issue will fix itself.

strangedays · June 6, 2021 1:31AM

The new player blows chunks. Scrubbing is completely unusable. We’re they on drugs when they QA’d this!? And so many standard playback features wiped out…just so their devs don’t have to support multiple platform versions.

MustSeeUHDTV said:

Not only can I not scrub in the MLB app, I cannot rewind or fast forward. I have to do 10 sec skips (and that is with my phone as I can’t get the new remote to do anything but pause, play, exit).

MLB is another that ditched the native tvOS APIs to roll their own. John Gruber (Daringfireball) has complained about it as well.

yoyo2222 said:

How about YouTube app behavior with the new remote? I've gotten used to how it works with the Siri remote but it definitely doesn't work the same way as other players do.

YouTube also abandoned the native tvOS video player, in favor of their lousy console port, in the name of uniformity with other devices they support. So boneheaded. It’s like the Java apps of yesteryear and their crappy non-native UI controls all over again, but video players.

22july2013 said:

Can someone explain why Disney chose to make Disney+ a separate app instead of being available as a channel inside the Apple TV app? What are they gaining from that decision? It seems like they lose functionality by doing that.

They do it so they can spy on user activity, log interactions, capture usage behaviors, run their own A:B testing, etc.

edited June 2021

glennh · June 6, 2021 8:27AM

Really? It seems like you do a lot of reading and quoting in here but I am not sure that you know that comprehension is a different process. If you have to ask the question if I support handicapped parking, you read but did NOT COMPREHEND my comment.

To make it beyond simple for your thought process, I am beyond 1000 per cent for ADA and anything that make it easier for others including handicapped parking.

Please go find someone else to engage with because you are not prepared to battle with someone who chooses to ignore you and your thought processes. Next time, please think and comprehend before you strike!

22july2013 said:

glennh said:

Like the earlier commenter stated this is an Accessibility Issue and Apple should require all vetted guests/Apps in Apple’s App Store to fully comply with all Accessibility Controls built into Apple API’s and iOS.

If they do not comply and publicly moan about compliance, kicked them out and let the public opinion shamed them for being closed minded to the needs of others unlike me and the vast majority of people on the planet who do not need the extra help to live their lives fully to their potential!

Do you oppose handicapped parking areas? Serious question, not a joke.

This is why Apple TV 4K Siri Remote scrubbing doesn't work on Disney+, other apps

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