Updated July 6 with details of other upcoming Apple TV news, more features coming to tvOS 18 this fall, and news about home devices.
Here’s how you know Apple is doing things right: when it introduces a feature you never thought of, but once here, you think, of course, that this is great. So is a new iPhone feature, and it’s coming to Apple TV, too: a subtle but clever update to how the mute button works. In even better news, it’s just one of a number of video playback features coming to Apple TV this fall in the next major software release, tvOS 18.
iPhone 16 will have the best video playback feature yet.
One of these is a gift for anyone who finds hearing dialogue tricky at times. Enhance Dialogue is designed to make vocals clearer against music, special effects and background noise. The feature is there now, but it will be improved thanks to machine learning in tvOS 18 and will work with AirPods, HDMI and Bluetooth connected speakers instead of just the HomePod as it is now. The settings grow into four options: disable, enhance, enhance, and isolate.
Another video playback change coming to Apple TV is support for full screen in the 21:9 aspect ratio, which was not there before. Additionally, along with the mute button-linked captioning feature detailed below, Live Captions for FaceTime, currently available on iPhone, will also be coming to tvOS.
You can already use an iPhone as an Apple TV camera for apps like FaceTime. Starting this fall, “With tvOS 18, users will have the option to set a specific iPhone as the dedicated Apple TV camera, which will always be ready for use,” as 9to5Mac reports.
And then there’s InSight, which lets you display details about actors in a scene, or songs played in a show. Amazon’s Prime Video has had something like this for years, so this is a welcome addition here. Other updates include a redesigned Fitness+ app for Apple TV and new screen protectors.
There has just been a leak that the Apple TV range is changing in other ways too.
MacRumors has identified “leaked Apple backdoor” code that says Apple is working on a new home accessory to sit alongside the HomePod and Apple TV.
The report says, “The code refers to a device with the identifier ‘HomeAccessory17,1’, which is a new identifier category. The name is similar to HomePod’s ‘AudioAccessory’ identifier.
This identifier is particularly intriguing because it suggests by mentioning the 17.1 that it may include the same processor expected in the Apple iPhone 16, the A18 chip. Which means the new device will be capable of advanced features, possibly related to AI.
More than that, the code refers to two unreleased models that are Apple TV devices. This fuels previous rumors that a new Apple TV (or two) could be released this year, possibly in September when the iPhone 16 series is expected to debut.
But the big news here is the suggestion that a new device will be so powerful that it needs the A18 chip in it, whatever it comes out with. Could it be the rumored Apple TV hybrid with a display? That would be innovative.
Apple has a history of intriguing innovations in Apple TV. Years ago, it improved video playback in a way that no other company has done before or since.
If you miss what someone said on TV, you can pick up your Siri remote and say, “What did he/she say?” Whichever pronoun you use, the result would be the same. The video would rewind 10 seconds, then replay the part you didn’t hear, with the subtitles front and center and only for those few seconds. If you haven’t tried it, it’s fantastic.
Now, with the next-generation software for iPhone and Apple TV, iOS 18 and tvOS 18 respectively, there will be another key innovation.
It will work on the upcoming iPhone 16 series, but also on iPhones up to the iPhone XS, once the software is installed. The software is currently in its second developer beta. It will go into public beta later this month and go public in September.
So how can one improve the mute button? It just works, doesn’t it? Apple’s change is great: when you mute video playback, either on the iPhone or by pressing the mute button on the Apple TV remote, as the silence descends, the subtitles automatically appear on the screen. Tap the button again and as the sound fades out, the subtitles fade out. How cool is that?
See the mute button? It’s about to get a whole lot better.
The feature will also be available, with a satisfying sense of completeness, on iPad and Mac when you’re watching videos using the default video player.
Now, I can see some drawbacks to this: if you’ve turned off the TV, or the iPhone, or whatever, so you can take a phone call or hear the other in the living room, say, and still focus on the screen because you can still see the words, instead of hearing your interlocutor, you can get a cutter, be warned.
Overall, though, this is one of the best video viewing updates to come along in ages. Apple only.