Apple TV 12+

The Apple TV app is phenomenal. I love how all of my apps are connected, with the exception of Netflix, and serves as a universal hub for all of my shows. I love iOS and the UI it offers the customer so I am very happy this Apple continues to invest in this app. Also, the Apple TV shows are excellent, and the new Apple TV+ section makes it easier to find all the latest shows and films. My only concern/hope for the future would be to access the content directly from the Apple TV app without being redirected to the native app. For example, being able to open a Disney+ show without having to be redirected to the Disney+ app itself. Otherwise, I love this app and I hope it continues to grow. I hope to see a lot more shows, movies, and maybe even sports (the English Premier League would be a dream come true). Regardless, I have much hope for the future of this app and I am excited to see just how far Apple will go with it.

Wow…Talk about taking an amazing app and completely destroying one of the main purposes for using an Apple TV, Up Next. Now, you are bombarded with Apple TV+ shows trying to get you to buy or watch them. The Up Next feature (which was the best part of having an Apple TV) is now a shell of what it once was and is no longer a focus for the user. Instead, you are now offered a small thumbnail of your Up Next carousel in the top 1/3 of the screen, with the lower 2/3 being advertisements for Apple TV+ shows. You no longer get any previews or artwork for Up Next, just that little square box. This terrible change by whomever approved this disaster actually has me questioning if it’s now even worth to have the Apple TV since features are being taken away. Almost all TV’s today are smart and have the Apple TV+ app, so the worth of the Apple TV is pretty moot if they remove or no longe care about one of the main reasons for having it. Instead of continuing to provide an amazing customer experience, Apple has opted to force you to see what they want you to see, and when, for their own personal gain. I’m not sure who this redesign is for, but Apple TV owners don’t buy an Apple TV for the TV+ app, they buy an Apple TV because it is the only product that provides you a unified experience and watch list that is continuously updated. Apple called it Up Next, and it was amazing before greed took over.

I can’t believe Apple has released something in this state. I paid for the monthly service, I attempted to watch the show on my tv, constantly buffering and not a single other app has issues (I have gigabit internet). The tv app changes my picture settings every time I turn it on to dark for some reason (how and why is this happening?!), constantly glitching for microseconds, which doesn’t sound like much but anytime there is music, the beat is all over the place and it is infuriating. I switched to watching via my Roku, and it’s more of the same. The absolute only way I can get any video to play properly is to play it on my phone via Airplay. I have reset my router, reset my tv and Roku, I even cleared the cache on my tv. To no avail. As soon as my tv show is done I am canceling this service instantly. I have used an iPhone for over a decade and paid a bit extra because it just worked and was always a smooth experience. This has been the worst experience out of any streaming service I have ever tried. I currently have 5 other streaming services I utilize and that’s not even including the free ones, which unfortunately, blow AppleTV+ out of the water, from a technical side and more importantly, the user experience. The absolute atrocious UX is actually so bad, I’m not even mad, I’m just disappointed. Do better Apple.