Recent software updates have really turned me on to the new Apple TV by adding features previously available on the last generation set-top box. The new Apple TV has redesigned apps and a whole App Store for finding new channels and games, a new Siri Remote with voice search that pulls in content from a handful of services, and there’s the full Apple Music experience too. The tvOS 9.1 update added Siri search for Apple Music ahead of schedule and brought support for Apple’s Remote app on iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches. The upcoming tvOS 9.2 update goes even further by bringing over an updated Podcasts app and adding app folders and a refreshed app switcher user interface. But there’s still just one more piece of low-hanging fruit left for the Apple TV to grab …
Siri Remote’s ability to click and hold the microphone button from anywhere on Apple TV and ask a question or give a command like “How’s the weather this weekend?” or “Show me the Minions movie” sets it apart from older Apple TV boxes and makes it more modern like Android TV and Amazon Fire TV boxes. In the United States, Siri can search Movies and TV shows in iTunes, HBO GO, HBO NOW, Hulu, Netflix, PBS, PBS Kids, SHOWTIME, and SHOWTIME Anytime. More providers are being added over time, but obvious partners missing include YouTube and all the major broadcast channels like ABC, CBS, and NBC which have nice selections of current and past TV shows and other content.
When you land on a channel without support for Siri Remote’s voice search, the natural behavior when facing a search field on your TV with a microphone button under your finger is to click and speak what you’d like to search, but iPhone-style dictation for text input just isn’t a feature. Instead, Siri Remote points to tvOS’s universal search and doesn’t recognize the context of what’s on-screen. Designing around this problem would be difficult, no doubt, but I’d propose one of two solutions.
Either recognize a search field in apps other than Apple’s universal search app and let the microphone button default to voice dictation for text input when a keyboard is displayed rather than Sir’s system wide search for the handful of partners, or map voice dictation for text input to a new gesture like double-click the microphone button rather than pressing and holding it to access this same mode.
Neither of these solutions are totally elegant and present their own issues, but either one solves a problem that regularly slows me down when looking for specific content to play. The current workaround to access voice dictation for text input in search fields on any app is to use the Remote app on iPhone or iPad. Because iOS lets you tap the same microphone icon found on the Siri Remote to access voice-to-text input, you can technically search any app using your voice and your iOS device already, just not with your Siri Remote.
Perhaps when Apple’s revamped Remote app adopts features currently available on the Siri Remote hardware later this year it’ll be possible to use the Remote app even more and save the Siri Remote as a backup input device. As it stands now, the Remote app on iOS and watchOS is more limited and often leads to having UI elements like progress bars and closed caption toggles stuck on-screen, although it’s a much appreciated app to my family.
What do you think? Does the new Apple TV have any obvious low-hanging fruit features that you hope to see added, or does Bluetooth keyboard support and the Remote app plus Siri Remote totally satisfy you? Let us know in the comments. And in the meantime, checkout what’s coming soon in tvOS 9.2 with our hands-on video:
I’d still like to see a dedicated Apple TV app on iOS similar to the iPhone’s Apple Watch companion app, and shaving $20-50 off the price would make the new Apple TV easier to recommend, but dictation in search fields for all apps would be a relatively simple improvement in my view.
[Update: 9to5Mac reader Jack Kendall shared his own mockup of this feature via Dribbble; check it out below.]
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The solutions are a little clunky and probably more complex than they need to be. I think the best way to solve this is with a Siri search API. Hold down Siri button like normal and say: “Search ‘YouTube’ for ‘9to5mac'” or Netflix or whatever app. I think Tim promised this was on the way and I’d expect to see this in iOS 10 (on the TV and iPhone)
This is obviously a feature that should have been there at launch, along with many other features, but it’s obviously coming, so I’m not sure why you’d bother writing about it, honestly.
The Apple TV needs to drop the Siri remote requirement for games more than any other thing. You’d think Apple wouldn’t have been that stupid, but alas.
They should also consider HomeKit integration since that’s one of the most obvious features that should have been there day one. In fact, until it had HomeKit integration, there shouldn’t have been a new one released. If it took Apple until 2020 to integrate HomeKit into it, it shouldn’t have been released until 2020.
I also want to say that HomeKit is pretty bad. Apple’s idea is that they just license a chip and software to everyone, but that’s a horrible solution to smart home devices. Are they unaware of the problem with smart home devices? I guess so. Smart home devices need major help in two fundamental ways: connectivity to a single hub; and organization and control in a single app. Siri was the last thing you would prioritize for smart home devices, and that’s essentially all Apple did. The Apple TV should be a single hub for all smart home devices, so when you have 15 different smart home devices from different companies, you don’t have to have 15 different worthless hubs laying everywhere as well. There should also be an Apple designed Home app on iOS, tvOS, CarPlay, Mac OS, and watchOS. This app would be a beautiful, simple to understand way to organize, name, and adjust all of your smart home devices.
I forgot, there should also be a Home app on iCloud.com so you can adjust anything or even look in on a camera when away from home at a friend’s, without any of your devices.
We thought it was going to be all about ATV being a helpful HomeKit hub for so long, and then, sigh….
Is there a way to have siri not pull up content from iTunes that you have to purchase? I only want it searching movie services that I pay for like Netflix, Hulu, HBO.
I brought up this same suggestion to an Apple engineer at the Apple TV Tech Talks in NYC last week and was told to file a Radar. Even though there are already existing requests for this same feature, I was told to file my own, as more requests equals greater demand. You can file a radar at https://bugreport.apple.com with an Apple developer account.
Thanks, yep, I like these Feature Request articles for widening the discussing and finding mockups and other ideas, but I also file radars (and get dupe replies) to cast my vote. Thanks for the comment.
Let’s be honest. Siri on Apple TV is a mess. It barely works. Most times, it just sits there and times out. So how about the FIRST feature request is to have it actually work?
Siri on Apple TV is a bit like Siri on everything, right? Requires patience and building the habit. The Siri search screens are one of the few places where I’ve seen crashes, though, although the recent betas seem to help here (or maybe I’m using Siri less).
THIS. I’m SHOCKED that this was overlooked. Typing using the remote is so annoying, and I can’t seem to pair my iOS remote because my ATV is attached via ethernet.
When early Apple TV reviews hit, I figured this was a feature until I learned it wasn’t. Remember thinking “huh!” then seeing it for myself and wishing it was there.
yea apple tv is so crippled without the ability to input text. we need two things: 1. a keyboard on the phone that we can use to interact with apple tv via an app 2. siri to work for dictating, ie. when im in netflix or youtube looking for things i need to be able to dictate search words via siri
Yep, even searching for something only in Netflix and having Siri search all of its partners is a bit jarring.
“we need two things: 1. a keyboard on the phone that we can use to interact with apple tv via an app”
That’s already there, through the Remote app on iOS,
One thing missing in the search feature is the recent searches section. A step back from Apple TV 3 unfortunately
they have dictation on the computer and phone… they should have it on the apple TV… having to scroll through the alphabet is hard work — and if you realise you put the wrong letter in the middle of the search there is no back button, only delete, so you have to do it all again…
I know they have the app – but that is very buggy… i stopped using it
It is bewildering how half baked the release of tvos was… After years and years of hype and buzz for a new apple tv and the simplest interface in the realm..we get this, imho, unfinished beta product.
It has potential.. Big potentioal..
But for the time being its a real fragmented and inconsistent .
My dvrs jurassic ui has much better content search/control /organizing features than apple tv does.
I sure hope Apple wakes up and turns this fragmented experiance into a nice, coherent and comprehensive ui.
I personaly like to see another very key feature :
consolidation of favorites in user created interapp folders with notification for new content… Like my fave comedies.. Scifi etc.
hate jumping from app to app…and trying to memorize and remember where and what my favorites are..
The more content apps come along.. The messier the interface will get without this feature. …..
YES! wasn’t that difficult, Apple ;-) #tvOS update 8-)