First-party devices TV was announced at an Apple media event on October 27, 2016, and was released in the United States on December 12, 2016, with
iOS 10.2 and
tvOS 10.1, replacing the "Videos" application in earlier versions of iOS. It aggregates television shows and movies from the
iTunes Store with content from installed partner apps, and can track progress across devices using the same
Apple ID. Only content from Apple's services opens inside the TV app; other content is opened in the linked app. The app originally contained five sections: "Watch Now", "Sports", "Library", "Store", and "Search".
Push notifications for sports scores can be enabled. TV received a major redesign following Apple's
March 2019 media event, which refocused it as a hub for Apple-distributed video streaming. The new version added support for Apple TV Channels and debuted a new icon similar to the Apple TV hardware icon, replacing the previous icon resembling a television. TV was added to the pre-tvOS 3rd generation Apple TV in March 2019, though this version lacks the ability to link with other video on demand apps.
Picture-in-picture and switching between multiple Apple IDs was added in tvOS 13 to fourth generation and newer Apple TVs. TV was released with
macOS Catalina on October 7, 2019, as one of three applications created to replace
iTunes. and other Macs released in 2018 or later when connected to a compatible display. TV was released for
visionOS on February 2, 2024, alongside the release of the
Apple Vision Pro, and includes support for viewing
3D versions of selected movies purchased through the service at no extra cost.
Third-party devices Apple announced in January 2019 that the TV app would be made available on non-Apple platforms for the first time. The decision to expand to other platforms was cited as part of Apple's efforts to expand its service revenues by making video content available widely to the public. It launched on
Roku on October 15, 2019, on models with a 3800 model number or higher, and on the Roku TV platform. It became available on
Amazon Fire TV on October 24, 2019, though limited to Fire TV devices released in 2016 or later, and on the Fire TV Edition platform. The app launched on
Samsung TVs on their customized version of the
Tizen OS platform on May 13, 2019. On December 16, 2020,
Google announced that the Android TV version of the app would be widely made available to other devices running Android TV, beginning with the
Chromecast with Google TV in early 2021. as well as the
Xbox One, and the
Xbox Series X/S at launch on November 10, 2020. The features available through the software on non-Apple devices are more limited than those on Apple devices, such as a lack of
Dolby Atmos and
Dolby Vision support, but additional updates have lessened the differences over time. == Content ==