Apple’s TV app could soon get a major revamp. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple will redesign its TV app “in a step toward consolidating the company’s various video offerings later this year.”
The journalist believes this update could likely come with tvOS 17.2, which is expected to be released in December. The TV app was first released in 2016 and, over the years, aggregated content from iTunes, Apple TV+, live sports, and third-party offerings.
Now, in this major overhaul, Apple will discontinue certain dedicated apps on the Apple TV, such as iTunes Movies, which lets users discover new movies and then buy or rent them, and also remove the movie and TV show sections from the iTunes Store app on iPhone and iPad.
Gurman says that the company wants to bring users to the main TV app as it will be the “consumers’ go-to hub for streaming content, as well as a bigger supplier of programming itself.” The journalist reports that this revamped app on the Apple TV box will have a similar design aesthetic as the one used by Netflix.
With a new side panel on the left side, users can navigate between video categories. This app will also be available on smart TVs produced by other companies and on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The journalist also teases that tvOS 17.2 isn’t the only update Apple is working on, as internally, the company is already testing iOS 17.3 and iOS 17.4 for a 2024 release. Although it’s unclear what these builds could feature, Cupertino is likely working on delayed features and other improvements that it still needs to announce to all users.
That said, we expect Apple to unveil iOS 17.1 today, with the first betas of iOS 17.2 arriving this week or the following one at maximum.
