Apple is making some changes to the TV app and users are not happy with the updates. The updated design appears to be visible primarily to iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, tvOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1 beta users, but it’s likely a server-side change introduced by Apple that will eventually rolled out to all TV app users.
Apple’s new design adds a featured section to the top of the “Watch Now” section in the TV app, with featured content placed above the “Up Next” watchlist. The change makes it harder for users to access the content they care about, with random TV shows taking up the majority of the screen.
In current versions of iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and macOS, “Up Next” sits at the top of the “Watch Now” tab for quick access to shows and movies that are currently playing or that have been placed on a playlist. surveillance. .
There are a number of complaints about the new design on Reddit from users who are unhappy with how featured TV shows and movies are crowding out Up Next content. This section appears to display a number of Apple TV+ shows and movies, but it also highlights shows and movies from other streaming providers. Regardless of the content being displayed, TV users don’t seem to want suggested content to replace the content chosen in the foreground of the app. From Reddit user robber3572:
I don’t mind the discovery aspect, which I admit is the essence of the TV app. It highlights that featured content above (literally and figuratively) the content I regularly watch that is boring and intrusive. This featured content is now prominently featured in the TV app and it highlights shows/movies I would never be interested in watching.
The TV app’s TV+ tab already had this design that places content above watchlists, and it extends to the Watch Now tab as well. When the Up Next section is selected on Apple TV, the Featured section is still visible and the Up Next show previews are gone. Featured also dominates the interface on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Currently, there’s no way to disable the featured section to put Up Next content back at the top of the app, and it’s unclear if Apple is still tweaking the design or if it is a finalized look. Worse, featured content appears to autoplay, ignoring Up Next settings that prevented shows from previewing content. There doesn’t seem to be a way to disable autoplay for featured shows and movies.