AT&T today announced that its DirecTV Now service has been updated with support for Apple's TV app.
With TV app integration, DirecTV Now users can take advantage of cross-device episode and movie tracking with the Up Next feature along with tailored content recommendations available on the DirecTV Now service using the Watch Now feature on the Apple TV.
There's so much on-demand content and live sports channels included with your DIRECTV NOW subscription, so the Apple TV app is a great place to help you find something new or jump back into your favorite on-demand show as new episodes arrive or quickly tune to a national sports broadcast.
The integration also means that Siri voice searches can be used to find TV shows and movies on DirecTV Now, which is useful for finding specific content. Siri searches work with the entire DirecTV on-demand library.
Siri also supports live tune-in with DirecTV Now so you can access specific live channels with a command like "Siri, tune in to [your favorite channel]" to open up the DirecTV Now app and turn on the channel.
The final feature included in the integration is single sign-on, which allows DirecTV customers to sign in once with their username and login to access available content across any supported third-party app.
Apple TV users with a DirecTV Now subscription will see a prompt to integrate their data with the TV app after playing a DVR show for the first time. AT&T says that the updates enabling TV app support will be pushed out to DirecTV customers automatically.
Update: DirecTV's live tune-in feature designed to let you watch live TV channels through Siri voice commands isn't actually implemented just yet and will be coming at a later date. The other features mentioned in the article are, however, live and available to DirecTV Now subscribers.
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Cue the DirecTV/Cable hater comments, but I gotta say, I'm kinda longing for the old days. Today's TV landscape seems to be getting even more fragmented and expensive with every studio and their nephew starting their own streaming service.
NOW if DirecTV could only fix their sorry app on the Apple TV, that may actually help founding users who are leaving for YouTubeTV, like me. It is junk and their support model is as well. They need an ITSM course in Service Delivery.
Functionality isn't explained here. So play a DVR and within the DirectTV now app you will get a prompt? Or you would need to navigate to the tv app after playing a DVR
Play the DVR in DirecTV Now app and you will get a prompt to integrate your data into the TV App.
I cannot get Siri to work to open DirecTV Now and go the channel I request. Don't know if that is still rolling out but, as of now, at least for me it is not working.
:apple: [doublepost=1552084414][/doublepost]Okay so, I figured out the Siri issue. You do not use the phrase in the article "tune in to [your favorite channel]." It does absolutely nothing.
At the home screen on the Apple TV, I say "Go live to Fox Business Channel" and it opens up DirecTV Now and goes live to Fox Business. Also, while in DirecTV Now you can ask Siri to go to channels, but it is a little hit and miss.
If you have a channel app, say ESPN, and ask Siri to go to ESPN, it will open the ESPN app, and will not go to ESPN in DirecTV Now.
Still playing around with it, so I might find some more things out.
Can you use Siri to tune to a specific DTN channel? And thanks for the post.
Unfortunately, that is not yet working for me. If I say "tune to CNN" for example, it asks if I want to open CNN using fuboTV, the CNN app, or PlayStation Vue.
"The final feature included in the integration is single sign-on" FINALLY! DirecTV Now was never listed so it was unable to do this previously, just regular Direct TV. Glad to see they finally added it.
For people who haven't gotten single sign-on to work yet. What I did was go into Settings in the DirecTVNow app and sign out of my account, then when into Settings in the Apple TV->Accounts->TV Provider and signed out there as well. Then signed in again, in the Apple TV TV Provider menu, and then all the apps, including DirecTVNow app showed me as signed out. When I clicked DirecTVNow in the available apps, it AUTOMATICALLY logged me into the app. I exited out of the app, went back into Apple TV Settings and Accounts/TV Provider and clicked on one of the apps, Food Network, clicked on Live TV, and it automatically activated the app using DirecTVNow. Single sign on is now working for me.
