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Apple introduces ‘TV,’ a one-stop app for streaming

It’s a 'unified TV experience' that gives users 'one place to access all of your TV shows and movies.'

 

Monica Riese

Streaming

Posted on Oct 27, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 5:14 pm CDT

If you’ve ever wished you could browse for your streaming favorites from one centralized app among Apple TV’s 8,000, instead of remembering which streaming service plays host to which shows, meet Apple’s new app called TV. 

It’s a “unified TV experience” that gives users “one place to access all of your TV shows and movies.”

The app’s sub menus include Watch Now, Library, Store, and Search: Everything you’re currently watching lined up on the Watch Now screen, so you can pick up where you left off in the middle of an episode, or queue up the next episode of a binge-watching favorite. 

Swipe down for new suggestions from your apps, including browsing by category, then just press play to start watching in the appropriate app immediately.

Library view has all your purchased and rented content, or you can buy new stuff from the store. It’ll automatically download the app to all your devices (which could be a problem if you’re as tight on space as I am). Syncs across devices for watching on the go, and Siri works with it too. 

Apple also showed off how well Siri works with the app, letting you tune you into a live news broadcast if you know the channel you want or navigating your apps to show you all the options in a category like “college football games.” And while you’re watching, you can take advantage of the interactive tools within the app to bring up a live Twitter timeline of stats, reaction GIFs, and more. 

The TV app will be available for free in the U.S. before the end of 2016.

Also, not to bury the lede, but the Minecraft app will also be coming before the end of the year.

Correction: According to Wired, the TV app will not come—at least on Day 1—with Netflix or Amazon. 

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*First Published: Oct 27, 2016, 10:37 am CDT