Apple purportedly plans a big revamp of its Apple TV app

Apple plans to redesign its standalone TV app in a step toward consolidating the company’s various video offerings later this year, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a subscription is required to read the entire article)

Quoting unnamed “people with knowledge of the matter,” he says this is part of the tech giant’s efforts to become a bigger player in the streaming world. Gurman says Apple is preparing a new version of the app for release around December as part of an upcoming tvOS software update.

The app, which first launched in 2016, aggregates content from iTunes, the Apple TV+ subscription service, live sports networks and third-party offerings like Amazon Prime. Gurman says Apple wants to push customers to the TV app, which is home to purchased movies and shows, ‌content from the Apple TV+‌ streaming service, and third-party channels to which consumers can subscribe. 

Gurman says the revamped Apple TV app will serve as a hub for streaming content. It will have a side panel at the left that can be used to navigate between different video categories, he adds.

I wonder if we might see an updated Apple TV 4K set-top box along with a revamped Apple TV app. In a June 2022 Power On newsletter, Gurman said that there are some “nice upgrades” plans for the set-top box.

He said a new Apple TV is in development with an A14 chip and an additional gigabyte of RAM. That compares with the A12 chip announced as part of the 2021 Apple TV last year and could be useful for additional gaming capabilities rolling out in tvOS 16. There are also rumors that a new remote is in the works for the set-top box.