Apple TV renovation could kill iTunes Movies app in December
Apple could overhaul its Apple TV app by the end of the year, in a bid to make it easier for users to acquire content without needing to access other apps to buy or rent content.
Apple TV
The current landscape for Apple's video content sales and rental is one consisting of multiple apps. While the Apple TV app was meant to be a way to aggregate videos from Apple's various services, it still meant users were often funneled into the other apps to buy and rent items.
According to Bloomberg, the Apple TV app could see a big change in tvOS 17.2, which should be released sometime in December.
In the change, Mark Gurman believes Apple will discontinue apps like iTunes Movies and TV Shows, as well as relevant movie and TV show elements from the iTunes Store app on iOS and iPadOS. Instead, Apple intends users wanting video content to head into the single, solitary TV app.
As part of the refresh, the app will be redesigned to have an aesthetic reminiscent of Netflix and other video services, in having a panel on the left-hand side for navigating between the different video categories.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
My guess is they simply stayed on the Watch Now area which does include AppletTV+, the Store for movies and TV shows, along with some trailers. These people you know don't seem to be your "average user" unless you have a valid reason how Apple can have 25 million AppleTV+ paid subscribers who find it impossible to find the AppleTV+ content on their devices. Anecdotally, I know plenty of people who are not good with technology that have had no problem watching AppleTV+ content.
That interface is the worst, and it really does keep me away from ATV when I have alternatives.
AppleTV at least has different tabs for them.
People think in structures and standards. It would have been more clear if Apple had a separate Apple TV+ app for only the subscription service, that users can compare mentally with all the other content apps. The TV app could then be more clearly positioned solely as an aggregator.
It seems they are going further down the wrong way and are making the same mistake as they made with iTunes: bloat it until no one knows how to use it and what it does.
We have 700+ movies in the library and it is a PITA to navigate them. Siri doesn‘t work with different languages of titles in the mix. You cannot create you own playlists/collections, something we could do in iTunes very early on.
Beyond that, when I first time read „I cracked it“ and it was clear that Gene Munster was totally wrong my idea was that Apple would make a „meta app“: One great interface and all sources for movies, theirs, Disney, Netflix etc., under the hood. Turns out, not so much. I also wished they‘d had pushed for the option to buy additional language tracks.
On the positive side: finally I can find my remote when our cats toyed with it :-)
What is confusing is that
- not all apps are supported, notably Netflix
- you can add additional content apps through Apple TV app, but these won't appear as an app on the home screen (while if you purchase the app in the app store, its on the home screen and supported by Apple TV app - or maybe not, its confusing....)
- there is a tab for Apple TV+ (but no tabs for the other apps purchased through Apple TV)
- there is no separate Apple TV+ app
They should have just made Apple TV app the meta app, and let everything else live besides it (App Store and TV+).
Even better: the home screen of the Apple TV should look like the home screen of the TV app; and what is now the home screen of the Apple TV should be a tab in the Apple TV app.
Good luck navigating!
Yes. You can change the default where the device comes out of standby or goes when you hit the "TV" button on the remote.