It's been just over two weeks since YouTube updated its Apple TV app with a major redesign, essentially bringing the app in line with YouTube on other products like Android TV, smart TVs, PS4, and Xbox One. While the original YouTube Apple TV app was never widely favored, the new update was met with even more blowback from some users, who referenced laggy controls, poorer playback UI, illogical changes to the subscription tab's channel list, and more.
This week, YouTube pushed out version 1.01.04 of the app for Apple TV 4th and 5th generation devices, and it addresses a few of these user concerns. The major update is a "modified" subscriptions tab that nixes the long horizontal list of subscribed YouTube channels -- which made it take much longer to get to channels at the bottom of the alphabetized list -- and reverts back to a grid layout akin to the original app. YouTube said this was done for "easier channel selection."
Although it's not mentioned in the update notes, one user on Reddit said that there have also been a few tweaks to video scrubbing, so users can "go through the video with the touchpad again instead of slowly rewinding/fast forwarding." When doing this, thumbnail previews of the video pop up to give you an idea of where to land as you jump through the video, but YouTube still doesn't use Apple's systemwide playback UI and there isn't any support for quick 10-second jumps forward and backward.
Otherwise, YouTube said that the update fixed an issue with the search keyboard when people were using "non-Siri TV remotes," and it includes the usual bug fixes and stability improvements.
Monday January 26, 2026 1:55 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced its first two physical products of 2026: a second-generation AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided Solo Loop for the Apple Watch.
Read our coverage of each announcement to learn more:Apple Unveils New AirTag With Longer Range, Louder Speaker, and More
Apple Introduces New Black Unity Apple Watch BandBoth the new AirTag and the Black Unity Connection Braided...
Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio.
Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014.
Q.ai has...
Monday January 26, 2026 3:56 pm PST by Juli Clover
Alongside iOS 26.2.1, Apple today released an updated version of iOS 12 for devices that are still running that operating system update, eight years after the software was first released.
iOS 12.5.8 is available for the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6, meaning Apple is continuing to support these devices for 13 and 12 years after launch, respectively. The iPhone 5s came out in September 2013,...
Tuesday January 27, 2026 2:39 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Update: Apple Creator Studio is now available.
Apple Creator Studio launches this Wednesday, January 28. The all-in-one subscription provides access to the Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage apps, with U.S. pricing set at $12.99 per month or $129 per year.
A subscription to Apple Creator Studio also unlocks "intelligent features" and "premium...
Friday January 30, 2026 5:40 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that his company will have opportunities to deliver "innovations that have never been seen before" this year.
"As I said at the beginning of my remarks, this was, in so many ways, a remarkable quarter for Apple, and we're excited for all the opportunities we'll have in the year ahead to deliver innovations that have never been seen before and enrich the lives of...
Why does YouTube insist on using its own player code rather than the excellent built in video player API? That's my only complaint about the new app. Apple's API works well and is consistent across all of TVOS. There's no reason not to use it.
The real issue isn't the layout or feature set. It's the fact they appeared to have replaced the old native app by a web view that performs poorly, and where touch inputs are inaccurate.
The whole app is choppy rather than the smooth 60fps we're used to. Touch inputs don't feel native, you constantly skip over the elements you want to select while navigating. Navigating the app is unpredictable, you don't know how it'll respond to your input, and the animations don't always have the same speed for some reason. It's like the app can't keep a steady framerate, and animation length are based on the number of frames drawn rather than duration in seconds.
It's a super frustrating experience all around. Hoping a dev can make a native 3rd-party app. I don't care if it's really basic feature wise, I just can't stand this kind of poor input quality and UI performance.
youtube's new app on the apple tv is a garbage fire. the old one wasn't great but at least it felt like an apple product as opposed to this new abomination. whoever made this decision should be fired and never work in tech again. are you listening youtube?
