Apple Seeds Sixth Beta of tvOS 15 to Developers

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of the upcoming tvOS 15 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new beta coming one week released the fifth beta.

Apple TV tvOS 15 Feature
Developers can download the new tvOS 15 beta by downloading a profile onto the ‌Apple TV‌ using Xcode.

Apple shared little about tvOS 15 when it was unveiled, but there are some new features that are coming to the operating system. SharePlay, a FaceTime feature that lets multiple users watch TV shows or movies together, will integrate with tvOS, and there's a new "For All of You" recommendation engine that suggests shows everyone might enjoy.

A Shared With You section also displays movies and shows that were shared with you through the Messages app so you remember to check them out. When paired with AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, the ‌Apple TV‌ supports Spatial audio for a theater-like surround sound experience, and there's a new feature for automatically connecting your AirPods through Smart AirPods routing.

Hey Siri commands can be used to launch Apple TV+ shows, and two HomePod mini speakers can be paired with the ‌Apple TV‌ 4K for stereo sound. If you have HomeKit cameras, you can also now view multiple cameras at the same time on the ‌Apple TV‌.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)

Top Rated Comments

Paul Shields Avatar
23 months ago

Library tab now loads large libraries or is the app still a dumpster fire?

Surely someone at Apple cares about their best customers. Right? Hello? Oh...
Change the record mate
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BWhaler Avatar
23 months ago
Library tab now loads large libraries or is the app still a dumpster fire?

Surely someone at Apple cares about their best customers. Right? Hello? Oh...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
srbNYC Avatar
23 months ago
The lack of release notes on these updates is frustrating. They update TVos as often as everything else, but it's a mystery.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zv470 Avatar
23 months ago
I really hope Apple reverses the UI changes to the video player on Apple TV. The old swipe down UI for selecting subtitles and audio tracks was perfect, the new UI is horrible.

Also spatial audio in current public beta has become too subtle, I hope this release fixes that.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
23 months ago
[SPOILER="tvOS 15 Beta 6 Release Notes"]
The tvOS 15 SDK provides support to develop tvOS apps for Apple TV devices running tvOS 15 beta 6. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 13 beta 6, available from Beta Software Downloads ('https://developer.apple.com/download/'). For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 13, see Xcode 13 Beta 5 Release Notes ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Xcode-Release-Notes/xcode-13-beta-release-notes').

[HEADING=2]App Store[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]New Features in tvOS 15 beta 6[/HEADING]

* A new onStorefrontChange(shouldContinuePurchase:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/purchaseoption/3868403-onstorefrontchange') is available in StoreKit 2. You can use this purchase option to determine whether the transaction continues if the App Store storefront changes during a transaction. The default is true if this option isn’t added. (70757789)
* VerificationResult.unverified(SignedType) is now VerificationResult.unverified(SignedType, VerificationError) to provide a reason for unverified signed values. jsonRepresentation ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction/3868410-jsonrepresentation') is available on Transaction ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction') and jsonRepresentation ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/subscriptioninfo/renewalinfo/3868404-jsonrepresentation') is available on renewalInfo ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/subscriptioninfo/status/3822294-renewalinfo'); both properties provide the payload JSON as Data. payloadValue ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/verificationresult/3868433-payloadvalue') and unsafePayloadValue ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/verificationresult/3868442-unsafepayloadvalue') properties are available on VerificationResult ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/verificationresult') as a convenience to access the signed value. (80701792)

[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* The unfinished ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction/3856631-unfinished') property might return VerificationResult<Transaction> for transactions that have already finished. (81346114)
* Purchases performed in the Sandbox environment return `VerificationResult.unverified:):)’. (71949674)

[HEADING=3]Resolved in tvOS 15 beta 6[/HEADING]

* All AsyncIteratorProtocol ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/asynciteratorprotocol') conforming types are now value types. (80982924)
* In-app purchases are now successful in TestFlight apps. (77332175)

[HEADING=2]Logging[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* Support for cleartext HTTP URL schemes for Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) is now deprecated. Use only HTTPS URL schemes for PAC. This affects all PAC configurations, including, but not limited to, configurations set via Settings, System Preferences, profiles, and URLSession APIs such as connectionProxyDictionary ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/urlsessionconfiguration/1411499-connectionproxydictionary') and CFNetworkExecuteProxyAutoConfigurationURL(_:_:_:_:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cfnetwork/1426392-cfnetworkexecuteproxyautoconfigu'). If you configure a cleartext HTTP PAC URL, the system may upgrade it to HTTPS during PAC file loads. Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) Protocol via DNS isn’t affected. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Option 252 WPAD may attempt to upgrade cleartext HTTP URLs to HTTPS during PAC file loads. (61981845)

[HEADING=2]MapKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* MKPinAnnotationView ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mkpinannotationview') and MapPin ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mappin') are deprecated in this beta. (78536295)

[HEADING=2]SharePlay[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* SharePlay has been disabled for use in tvOS 15 developer beta 6 and will be disabled for use in its initial release this fall. SharePlay will be enabled for use again in future developer beta releases and will launch to the public later this fall.

[HEADING=2]SwiftUI[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 6[/HEADING]

* List ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List') now correctly respects safe area insets. (78833004)

[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* controlProminence is deprecated. Use the new .borderedProminent ButtonStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/ButtonStyle') instead. (78908460)

[HEADING=2]Xcode[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* MusicKit ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/MusicKit') functionality, such as loading content with music requests, doesn’t work in simulated devices. (78559381)
Workaround: Test your app’s MusicKit functionality on a physical device.

[/SPOILER]

Not much going on except SharePlay has been disabled for this release.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
troublador Avatar
23 months ago
Playing TV audio via ARC to a pair of HomePods is still awful for me in tvOS 15. It's basically unusable. Who wants to spend 10 minutes trying to get audio out their speakers every time they turn on the TV?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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