Soon, you’ll be able to use the biggest screen in your home to video chat with your friends and family. tvOS 17 adds FaceTime, in addition to many other features that Apple announced at WWDC 2023.
Later this year, the 2022 Apple TV 4K will pair wirelessly with an iPhone or iPad to use the camera in FaceTime video calls. The call will display on the TV connected to the Apple TV.
In addition, tvOS 17 will feature a newly designed Control Center and allow you to find your remote using the iPhone’s built-in Remote app. Sleekly slim, the remote can easily get lost, so now there’s a way to find it without tearing up all of your couch cushions.
Here’s everything we know so far about tvOS 17.
tvOS 17: What you need to know
- Added: FaceTime app
- Added: Find the My Remote function
- redesigning: A control center with access to AirPods settings, home cameras, and user profiles
tvOS 17 release date
Apple hasn’t set an exact release date for tvOS 17, but it should be sometime this fall.
Most likely, it will be September 2023, judging by the previous releases. tvOS 16 was released on September 12, 2022, tvOS was on September 20, 2021.
tvOS 17 features
At WWDC, Apple announced four major updates to tvOS 17.
The first is to add the FaceTime app. Since Apple TV boxes don’t have their own camera, they’ll sync wirelessly to an iPhone or iPad that has a continuity camera. The call itself will display on any screen connected to your Apple TV (most likely a TV or monitor).
The continuous camera API is now available to developers, so that it can be used by other applications. Apple said video conferencing apps like Webex by Cisco and Zoom will launch on tvOS later this year.
tvOS 17 FaceTime has many of the same capabilities as the iPhone and iPad versions, such as Centerstage, which allows you to frame perfectly in the center of your camera feed. You’ll also be able to use gestures to create effects and SharePlay video streams from any app that supports it. Apple Sing will also take advantage of the Continuity Camera feature so users can see themselves on screen and add fun filters.
The second major feature in tvOS 17 is Find My Remote, which allows you to use the iPhone Remote app to locate the Siri Voice Remote if it goes missing.
Next up is a redesigned Control Center that makes it easier to access AirPods settings, home cameras, and user profiles from the tvOS 17 home screen.
Finally, tvOS 17 gives users the option to set Memories as their own screensavers, so that their photos are displayed when the Apple TV is idle. Pictures will be displayed with fluid animations and transitions.
Some of the other upgrades coming to tvOS 17 are:
- Promote dialogue which lets users hear more clearly what’s being said about the effects, motion, and music in a movie or TV show on Apple TV 4K paired with HomePod (2nd generation) by separating dialogue from background noise and bringing it to the center channel.
- Dolby Vision 8.1 supportwhich provides Apple TV 4K users with a more cinematic visual experience with dynamic metadata across a wide variety of movies and TV shows.
- Apple Fitness + improvements, incl custom plansa new way for Fitness+ users to receive a personalized exercise or meditation schedule based on day, duration, type of exercise, and more; Stacks, which allows users to select multiple exercises and meditations to take turns seamlessly; And Acoustic focusgiving users the ability to prioritize the volume of music or coaches’ voices.
- Third party VPN support, which enables developers to create VPN apps for Apple TV. This could benefit enterprise and education users who want to access content on their own networks, allowing Apple TV to be a great solution for offices and conference rooms in more places.
tvOS 17 devices
While Apple hasn’t specified which Apple TV devices will be compatible with tvOS 17, we feel they may be phasing out any boxes that aren’t 4K.
The three 4K Apple TVs are Apple TV 4K 2017 (1st generation), Apple TV 4K 2021 (2nd generation), and Apple TV 4K 2022 (3rd generation).
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